over 20K for one chemo treatment

sweetvickid
sweetvickid Member Posts: 459 Member
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
That seems a bit high to me. Has anyone's chemo treatments cost them over 20k per treament?

Comments

  • Mama G
    Mama G Member Posts: 762
    #2
    WOW!
    What are you on?
  • meena1
    meena1 Member Posts: 1,003
    #3
    Mama G said:

    WOW!
    What are you on?

    Yes, mine did. I was non
    Yes, mine did. I was non Taxol, Herceptin and Zometa. Fortunately, i had good insurance that covered 100%.
  • heidijez
    heidijez Member Posts: 441
    #4
    yes! mine was about $22,000
    yes! mine was about $22,000 per treatment! i'll be paying off my share until i die!
  • MAJW
    MAJW Member Posts: 2,510 Member
    #5
    Not as high......
    Each of my chemo infusions, Taxotere/Cytoxan, were around $16,000. If you look at the itemized statement,which EVERYONE should request, the tubing alone for the taxotere, as it is so toxic, was $3,600.00. That's JUST TUBING! All together my chemo and radiation, 33 treatments were close to $200,000. I am so lucky, I have fantastic insurance so very little out of pocket and since my bc and treatment was all last year, I was wondering about a NEW deductable for this year.....I don't have to pay it, as this is considered an ongoing disease....so everything after my second chemo was covered 100% and still so.....again, I am so lucky in that respect.
  • greyhoundluvr
    greyhoundluvr Member Posts: 402
    #6
    Mine Wasn't That High
    I am on C/T and it runs about $14K per treatment (but the insurance payout is only about half of that which they accept as full reimbursement). When you tack on the Neulasta, it is another $6600 (and they get half of that). No doubt this is very expensive treatment and I am also very grateful for having good insurance. Before this event, when we were paying for "little" events like my husband's broken ankle, I thought our coverage was poor - I defnitely have a different perspective now.

    Chris
  • Katz77
    Katz77 Member Posts: 598
    #7
    the high price
    Mine was 18,500. Taxol/herceptin. Monthly herceptin, 9,000. My onc told me from the begining with surgery and all the treatments plus tests it would be in the ballpark of half a millon. The high price for recovery! Sure hope it works. lol I have great insurance. My costs so far is 4,500+ odd monies for co-pays for the Drs visits etc
    I wonder sometimes how people make it. I work in surgery even w the surgeon that did my surgery. He did surgery on a homeless man. Unfortunely, he has colon cancer and has NO one. My doc has found treatments and monies to cover costs, but can't find a place where he can stay after treatments and a caregiver. Sad. We are living in a 5th wheel or I would take him in. We live in a small town in southern NM that has no facility for the homeless.
    Any ideas?
  • arkansasgirl
    arkansasgirl Member Posts: 84
    #8
    CHEMO $$$
    HI

    Mine was $10,350 a treatment which was over $60,000 for 6 treatments. Thank goodness
    I had good insurance that paid 100%.

    Arkansasgirl
  • Whytshawl
    Whytshawl Member Posts: 5
    #9
    MAJW said:

    Not as high......
    Each of my chemo infusions, Taxotere/Cytoxan, were around $16,000. If you look at the itemized statement,which EVERYONE should request, the tubing alone for the taxotere, as it is so toxic, was $3,600.00. That's JUST TUBING! All together my chemo and radiation, 33 treatments were close to $200,000. I am so lucky, I have fantastic insurance so very little out of pocket and since my bc and treatment was all last year, I was wondering about a NEW deductable for this year.....I don't have to pay it, as this is considered an ongoing disease....so everything after my second chemo was covered 100% and still so.....again, I am so lucky in that respect.

    Cost of Chemo
    Hi I had a question. you said that you were wondering about a NEW deductable for this year.....But you don't have to pay it, as this is considered an ongoing disease....

    I was wondering about that. I'll have to contact my insurance and see if that is true for me too. I am paying $982.00 a month for cobra insurance, which was Blue X Blue Shield. But my X employer changed insurances the first of the year. Which started a new ded of $1000.
    Thanks for the info!
    Take care
  • Skeezie
    Skeezie Member Posts: 586 Member
    #10
    arkansasgirl said:

    CHEMO $$$
    HI

    Mine was $10,350 a treatment which was over $60,000 for 6 treatments. Thank goodness
    I had good insurance that paid 100%.

    Arkansasgirl

    Cost of Chemo
    Last year my BC/BS and Medicare were combined by BC so I am assuming the totals I see on my statements cover both. They have now separated them so I get two statements. On my year to date (and of course stuff is still being billed) they stated they had paid approx $40,000 (tht was the end of 2009) and that included all doctors, biopsies, lymph nodes, mastecomy, stress test, colonoscopy,4 days in the hospital, 4 chemo's of C/T. My Nuelasta was $3,200 each but I don't know if those statements include the drugs. One of my anti-nausea drugs was $1600. But that's what rthey paid,not what they wre billed and they only pay about 50% or less. After my $300 deductible they cover everything. Now I'm curious and will take a look again to see what was billed. I remember seeing "chemo - $5,500". I do not have to have radiation so I'm sure a huge chunk of change goes there. But I am totally knocked out by some of your figures!

    I have to go now and start looking at BC/BS & Medicare statements!

    Hugs, Judy :-)
  • aztec45
    aztec45 Member Posts: 757
    #11
    Chemo is Very Expensive
    Chemo is very expensive especially if only one manufacturer makes the chemical. They charge an outrageous figure for it. And the figure includes everything, like the tubing, the saline, the anti nausea drugs, ect. Yes, I am broke from it all.

    Oh well, you got to go on living.

    P
  • carkris
    carkris Member Posts: 4,553 Member
    #12
    aztec45 said:

    Chemo is Very Expensive
    Chemo is very expensive especially if only one manufacturer makes the chemical. They charge an outrageous figure for it. And the figure includes everything, like the tubing, the saline, the anti nausea drugs, ect. Yes, I am broke from it all.

    Oh well, you got to go on living.

    P

    dont know about the chemo,
    dont know about the chemo, but the neulasta was significantly higher than the abouve estimates. the radiation was 6,700 per treatment x33. I am lucky to have good insurance. I would tell myself that when I felt sick etc.. trying to find the positive.
  • GregStahl
    GregStahl Member Posts: 188
    #13
    aztec45 said:

    Chemo is Very Expensive
    Chemo is very expensive especially if only one manufacturer makes the chemical. They charge an outrageous figure for it. And the figure includes everything, like the tubing, the saline, the anti nausea drugs, ect. Yes, I am broke from it all.

    Oh well, you got to go on living.

    P

    Does it really cost
    $14 - $22k to manufacture one treatment? Does it really cost $3k+ to make the tubes? Radiator tubes are only $20 - $40 each and glycol (SP?) is more toxic than these drugs.....what gives?
    Obama wants to fix health care/insurance, but take a look at the cost of the drugs, equipment, etc as well. Insurance compnaies are not bilking us, everyone is!!!!!

    We have good insurance, but I still am looking at $6k+ worth of bills with more on the way. I just got my ugly red headed butt out of trouble with mortgage, car, cards, etc and now we are heading right back down that road.

    Did the surgeon really need to charge $385 for the Q&A session (10 minutes) we had with him 2 days after the positive diagnoses?

    Seems like when you get the diagnoses, everyone jacks up their fees.

    Do the post surgical mastectomy shirts really cost $125 to make? Do the baseball hats with the wig hair around the back really cost $90.

    *As you can tell, this struck a chord with me.
  • mariam_11_09
    mariam_11_09 Member Posts: 691 Member
    #14
    Talking about medical costs

    Talking about medical costs ....

    I had a single mastectomy with DIEP flap reconstruction and spent 4 nights at Stanford hospital. They billed insurance $150 000 however insurance had only contracted $24 000.

    For the AC, one transfuscion which I have at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation came to $3 972 but the neulasta was $ 7 824. The chemo probably would have been more if I had had it at Stanford Hospital. I am not sure what the Herceptin and Taxol will cost.

    Last year I had an HMO and would have paid nothing, however our company did away with the HMO and I was forced to choose from a PPO and HRA. WIth the PPO I have a max out of pocket of $2000 excluding copayments. Not bad but not as good as the HMO.

    Aside from being life threatening Cancer is sooo costly!
  • Marcia527
    Marcia527 Member Posts: 2,729
    #15
    I had 8 total cycles of
    I had 8 total cycles of chemo and surgery (no reconstuction) and 6 weeks of radiation back in 2003/2004. Unless I misscalulated I totaled the insurance paid $40,000, with my share being $4000. For some reason they billed chemo different than radiation and I had to pay the 20% on it and deductable where they paid 100% for the chemo. When I asked they said something about the chemo office was part of the hospital but the radiation was a seperate company even tho they were in the same building and shared a waiting room. Oh well.
  • Kay Allen
    Kay Allen Member Posts: 3
    #16
    Chemo charges
    Yep got my first chemo bill and it was over 22,000.00 Was just blown away by the charges.
  • greyhoundluvr
    greyhoundluvr Member Posts: 402
    #17
    Greg
    You hit a chord with me, too! And as much as I hate to say it in public, although I don't think the new health care plan is the fix, I would go for socialized medicine in a heartbeat. We had a family at work whose very young wife developed cancer and the cost of her medications was so high that their kids were going to go without Christmas (the office took up a donation for them). A week before my diagnosis this past Christmas, my sister and I got into an argument about the health care plan and my whole point is that there is something wrong when we live in such an advantaged country and families have to worry about going broke if someone gets cancers (or not being able to eat vs. not being able to treat). Even though I am a nurse, I will never understand why health is a for-profit business in this country.....

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