Cost of ablation for AFIB left atrium? Already had right atrium for aflutter and SVT.

[Edstiffler13]

Curious of the cost these days for an afib ablation. He kind of shower me how he was going to do it. Looked like he was going to a late about a half circle in the left atrium where pulmonary arteries come in? Not sure exactly. But he said it would take 3.5 to 4 hours. I’m having this week or next week. But I can’t remember what my last ablation cost 4 years ago. I have been reading people online saying 80-100k American dollars. I don’t even remember it being between 10-20 thousand last time. If anybody has any idea in American money how much I would appreciate it!

[Dawsonmackay]

The first time it was 190; second time, 205; third time, 220. I live in Missouri

[Edstiffler13 in reply to Dawsonmackay]

Oh wow. How much did you pay out of pocket?

[Dawsonmackay in reply to Edstiffler13]

About 4k

[Edstiffler13 in reply to Dawsonmackay]

That’s more what I was thinking. Pop a catheter up your leg, cross over into left atrium ablate a few spots and call it quits. 3 hours your done besides the night in the hospital. But $200,000 scared me to death! And they should have went to court over that bill!!

[Dawsonmackay in reply to Edstiffler13]

You do realize that there’s close to ten people monitoring you through the ablation procedure! And then quite a few support staff once you’re awoken from your slumbers. And typically a transesophageal echo before... $$$ add up real fast

[Edstiffler13 in reply to Dawsonmackay]

Oh yeah i remember seeing the entire crew there when they laid me on the table. But not $200,000 dollars worth of people!! There’s a lot of monitoring going on that’s for sure. Main money goes to surgeon, anesthesiologists, hospital stay

[Hidden]

My first ablation (in California) back in 2013 cost around $120,000. My insurer at the time played pre-existing condition and left me with $147,000 total in bills. I'm still amazed the ablation "stuck" with all that stress and I didn't go into AF!

I fought hard for 1.5 years and won, got them to pay. Ha!

Second time around, in 2017, I used what I learned from the first experience in terms of how to deal with the bureaucracy.

I asked the hospital and doc billers to give me the codes for the ablation. Then I presented those codes to my insurance (Blue Shield) and asked what my coverage was. They told me it would be billed as an outpatient procedure (I was stunned!) and so I'd owe 2 co-pays of $65 each. This was a significant difference from the first hospital I'd been to.

I asked the insurance guy to put it in writing, which he did. I sent that letter to the hospital billers, who were really not helpful.

The hospital billed $173,000 for the ablation. I wondered if that included a car for each person in the room!

Over 4 months, I challenged every claim that came through that had not been processed as I'd been promised by my insurance or had been coded improperly by the billers. To their credit, the insurance company did stand by what was promised in that letter. I also found a wonderful hospital billing manager to advocate for me. Her staff had been rather nasty and unhelpful, which she learned after listening to the recordings.

In the end, she didn't even charge me the $65.

The moral of the story: ask! speak up! check every bill and claim cause my experience is that mistakes are more common than not. I saved $5000 by doing this. Happy to share other tips, feel free to PM me.

[Edstiffler13 in reply to Hidden]

I’m worried the reason they havnt called me the past few days is my insurance isn’t wanting to pay. So I’m sure I’m going to have to jump through tons of hoops! I may need some help!

[Hidden in reply to Edstiffler13]

It's really important to be proactive about these things. If you're concerned, you'd be wise to reach out and ask. That will also lessen the anxiety about it for your heart. The billers, insurers, office staff, even if they're basically pleasant, are typically overworked and will often not be connecting the dots and looking out for you.

This is the best billing wisdom I can share!

And if you run into huge hassles, you can always engage the services of the Health Care Advocate who was a godsend to me - Mary Covington, of fixmyclaim.com. She is amazing and taught me a lot about all of this. Her company is in Salt Lake City.

I can't dig too much into the details with you, but I can offer these words of encouragement and coaching! Just like AF itself, it pays to jump in the driver's seat.

Best wishes to you!

[Nugger]

The best in the world, the people that invented the procedure over in Bordeaux France only charge around $25,000 & that includes 5 days accommodation Incase you need a touch up

[kathie659]

So it would be cheaper to fly first class to France and stay for a few weeks to recover?

[dmac4646]

Thank god I live in the UK.