What are the typical costs to a patient for a catheter ablation?

[Jmc43]

I live in the US, had an ablation in July and am coming up on the 6 month follow up, and have no signs of any issues at all. So far, a success. However, I was just reviewing my health care costs for the year, and I was shocked by the final charges for the mapping and ablation procedures. I have been trying to find out typical costs, realizing of course they are probably highly variable, at least in the US. But I have been unsuccessful at locating any recent data. Does anyone in the forum have any good data? I am on Medicare and a medigap policy, so paid almost nothing out of pocket, but I am still curious.

[BobD Volunteer]

Here in UK it costs around £15,000 plus any bed costs but it is not the cash cow seen in USA.

[RxMe]

Hi Jmc43,

Before my catheter ablation in August, I asked my EP’s office assistant how much does the procedure cost. She came back with the figure $16,000. (I live in a major Eastern US city.). Of course, being on Medicare, I never had to pay anything close to that, although the bill to Medicare was well over $90k!

[Jmc43 in reply to RxMe]

Very helpful indeed. I live in central Virginia. The bill for my procedure to Medicare was also just under $90k. I was amazed. I realize there are lots of specialists and staff involved, and some fairly extensive electronic equipment, but it still sounds like a lot to me. Especially when compared with BobD's figure. One of the issues with US health care is that hospitals and medical centers often charge a lot for certain procedures for people who have insurance to cover their costs for paying for the uninsured.

[CDreamer in reply to Jmc43]

Big difference, huge - obscene.

Never understood how healthcare in US has become this money making cash cow. We have private insurance and healthcare as well, my 2 ablations cost my private insurer in the region £14K each back in 2014.

[BobD Volunteer in reply to CDreamer]

Because our doctors get paid a salary not what they can make CD.

[Ppiman in reply to Jmc43]

It's becoming obvious why some are keen to allow US takeovers of some of our healthcare services. If that happened, I expect the UK prices would quadruple. Imagine that.

The Americans I know believe they get better healthcare than we do; and they might well be right, I suppose.

[Ppiman]

Over £20k last year.

[CDreamer in reply to Ppiman]

That sounds about right if it was £14K IN 2013/2014

[Kaz747]

I’m in Australia and have had 4 ablations for various arrhythmias. I haven’t paid anything but the costs to Medicare (which is a bit like the UK’s NHS) and my private health insurance ranged between A$25,000 and A$30,000 for each (hospital and doctors fees). Based in the current exchange rate that’s a maximum of about US $22,000.

[Madscientist16]

I had my cryo-ablation in November of 2019. My insurance was charged $136K. I believe this was for all doctor and hospital costs related to the procedure, including the overnight stay and NOT the pre-op tests or post-op visits. Yes, I was shocked. I had to pay the insurance deductible and the hospital co-pay. I live in central Illinois, US.

[CDreamer in reply to Madscientist16]

DROPPED JAW.......😱

What would it cost if you didn’t have insurance I wonder?

I know I stopped counting how much I must have cost the NHS in drugs but I have taken private medical care for most of the procedures I have had to have. The trouble with private insurance in UK is that it won’t cover any chronic condition or give treatment that isn’t NICE approved whereas the NHS covers any and every condition.

[mobradley]

the cost of my ablation to my private health provider in 2019 at Papworth in Cambridge, UK, was £18,000. I was in for the day only. Seemed very expensive to me but fortunately it has been successful so far.

[Finvola]

I remembered one of our Volunteers posting about her ablation costs -

This makes my eyes water!!!

healthunlocked.com/afassoci...

[CDreamer in reply to Finvola]

I remember that post Finvola - I wasn’t going to mention it as I thought that was just ridiculous.

[Spoiler]

Mine was estimated at 117,000.00 in Cleveland, Ohio at the #1 heart center in the US in 2018. It ended up $198,000.00 due to complications (cardiac tamponade) landing me in ICU and a extended stay. They were unable to complete the surgery and went back 6 months later to finish the ablation, another $78,000.00.

[Maggimunro in reply to Spoiler]

Good grief. No wonder medics in the USA are wealthy.

[Spoiler in reply to Maggimunro]

Yes they are!

[Jmc43]

This has been a very helpful discussion. And as we can see, costs vary wildly between countries, and in the US, even between regions perhaps — or degree of difficulty. Anyway, costs seem to range from £15,000 in the UK to $300,000 in the US. Ha! Health care financing is so different in the US than in the UK or Canada or Australia that it is hard to make comparisons. However, it is safe to say that in the US, procedures like an ablation are expensive, and often the costs are unpredictable. Even reading the bills creates a challenge for us as patients as they are often not understandable.

Our medical costing system is fragmented and broken, and in need of reform. One issue that drives up costs is that hospitals and medical centers often inflate charges so that they have a pool of money that can be used to treat the uninsured. So there are hidden subsidies that people mostly don’t acknowledge/. As part of any reform effort, we could learn a lot from other countries. However, it is a hot button here in the US, as many believe it is the ‘best’ system, and we certainly don’t want government run health care (like Medicare 🤣), yet our health indicators don’t merit the costs at this point. Having said all of that, I am appreciative of the fine care I received, and the fact that Medicare did cover all the expenses. And I am sure those of you that responded from the UK and Australia also received fine care...just at a different costing level.

[Maggimunro in reply to Jmc43]

About your comment ‘many here believe it is the best’ in the USA. Just read this US report that ranks world public health care systems.

The USA comes 15th.

Http://google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j...

Make of it what you will.

So I suppose we all like to think our own system is the best. From personal experience I would certainly rank the UK and France very highly.

[Jmc43 in reply to Maggimunro]

Just to be clear, I don’t think the US health care system is ‘the best’. In certain indicators, in fact, it ranks much lower than 15th. I raise the point because a certain percentage of the population thinks or assumes it is the best system, and this — often combined with a belief that the government can’t run a good health care system — makes it difficult to work for health system reform here. One of the great ironies is that people on Medicare mostly think it is run very well, but when asked about changing the health care system, they will say ‘don’t let the government run the health care system’. 🤔.

One other issue I have noticed in the comments. Some assume that US physicians are rich because of the high health care costs. That isn’t accurate across the board...general practitioners in, say, Canada and the US tend to be compensated similarly. However, specialists — like those who do ablation — are compensated at a higher rate. The greater the speciality, the higher the compensation. Which also explains why there is a shortage of GPs.

[planetiowa]

Mine in the US cost me $7K which was my max out of pocket expense on my insurance plan. The actual amount insurance paid was about $25K however the billed cost was about $130K. I'm not sure who pays that or why it is billed that high when they know insurance will only pay them $25K. I know everyone complains about high costs in the US however one thing I was impressed with was that I went from my initial visit with my primary care doctor to a Cardiologist, to an Electrophysiologist, EKGs, ECG, CT scan, stress test, Transesophageal Echocardiogram, and finally to a PVI cryoablation procedure over a span of about 2 months.

[wilsond]

I will get mine at no charge from the NHS . I have been early retired for two years and no longer pay National Insurance contributions ,taken automatically and gauged according to your salary. However,if I hadn't and was a British Citizen it would still be free on the NHS.It's interesting to read about it other systems .