Need advice about laproscope and costs.........help please!!!

[Floweryfields]

Hi
I have bitten the bullet and made an appointment with the gyno to ask for a Laprosocopy to find out what is really going on in my girly bits! Thinking there is major endo in there and want to know for sure.

Anyway, currently I have only extras private health insurance, I have just enquired about adding hospital but am not sure it will be worth it - I guess this would be considered a preexisting condition - though no one is actually certain what's in there (but we all know what health insurance cos are like).


SO - any of you lovely ladies had this procedure and can possibly give me a general idea of what it might cost - is it normally done as day surgery or overnight?

Thanks so much, you're fabulous!!!!!

[sazzafrazz]

I have only had a laproscopy for a lap and die to see if my tubes were blocked. It was done with repromed in SA about 11years ago so I cant really be of help cost wise, sorry.

It was done as day surgery in the normal day surgery suite at the hospital although if I had it done now it would be at their own clinic/surgery. I went in at 7am and was out by 2pm I think. I felt pretty crummy for a couple of days with all the bloating and a bit sore at the incisions. No heavy lifting while the stitches are in but you should be doing normal things within a day or so.

All the best!!!!

Sazz

[nic]

I think it is really going to come down to the gyno that you see and their costs. The fee we paid was $572 (lap done almost 2 years ago now) and because I took the 'quote' to our health fund, they paid the full difference after medicare paid. I also had to pay a $200 'booking fee' to the gyno for arranging my booking with the hospital. The $200 was not refundable from medicare or PHI.

The hospital was around $700 i think. Day stay only. Arrived early in the morning, think it was 6am? and finally checked out around 6-7pm the same night.

Anaethetist was $626. Can't quite remember what our out of pocket was for this. Also had a Dr assisting and their fee was $100.

I then also received a bill from the Pathology place which was $146.

[Trillian]

I had one done in December, I'll dig out the bill for you and let you know how much it was.

ETA - found it all! We have PHI with premium level cover, so my health fund paid for most of it.
$1,991.60 - Hospital (day procedure unit)
$1,289.65 - My Gyno's costs
$700 - Anaesthetist (fees depend on how long you're under for - I was under for nearly 1.5hrs)
$162.05 - Pathology (cause anything they find they will send to pathology to see if it is endo or not etc)

$4,143,30 total. Of that I was out of pocket only $277 - $272 for the anaesthetist and $5 for the pathology. Our PHI paid for all bar $122.85 which was the pathology and medicare paid for $117.85 of that and I paid the $5.

Make sure that the Gyno, hospital and anaesthetist participate in the gap cover scheme so you aren't out of pocket as much. Or you could choose to go 100% public, but then you are at the mercy of the waiting lists so it could be some months before you get in. From the first appt I had with my gyno to having the lap it was only 5wks, but it was the second one he'd done for me too, so he knew there was a problem already.

[Floweryfields]

My problem is, if I did take out health insurance for hospital cover, I reckon they are definitely going to say this is pre existing condition - even though no one actually knows for sure what's in there until I get the procedure done. So that would mean I would have to wait another entire year to get it done, and I can't handle that!

I am probably going to be best off going for the public system - or maybe semi private and pay some costs - $4000 is outside of my budget!!

Why, why, why didn't I take out the full cover in July last year!!!! That would've been a far less amount of time to wait......grrr.

[Trillian]

Even though I had already had a lap done, my PHI didn't consider it an exisiting condition because so much time had passed since it was done. You can go public, but also use what PHI you have to help get you through quicker. All public hospitals will take your PHI.