$52K Hospital Bill, $12K BCBS Approved

[winecaptain]

With all of the travel overseas to get these procedures done, it baffles me that I just reviewed my EOB and for the hospital portion, BCBS (it was a BCBS approved facility) covered $12K of a $52K bill and the rest gets written off. I understand hospital economics very well, however I wonder if shrewd negotiation could result in comparable (or even lower) cash pay pricing in the US could result in lower costs than European hospital visits at 25K Euros. One might think that a call to a local hospital CFO may allow a cervical disc replacement here in the US for some number near what they accept from BCBS. Even if it was $15K it would still provide a substantial cost savings as compared to an overseas trip... I have not seen the EOB for my physician and will add it to this post. My other charges (radiology, etc) have been approved at a combined ~$1,000. I will tally up all of the bills and approval amounts and post here when I get it all together. As we all know, the big bill is the hospital (which includes the Prodisc-C and it was $52K with a $12K amount covered by BCBS (providing a $40K loss or write off)...