Aug 4th surgery is set

[Vicki_in_Florida]

I'm going on August 4th to have my L5 replaced with a prodisc by Dr. Zigler at the Texas Back Institute.

My cost:
$19,000 to Dr. Zigler and a general surgeon assistant

$21,550 for the disc and hospital stay (one day)

Staying at a Marriott for 30 days.

In two weeks, I go back for an xray and if all is well, I get the mid body cast removed and they will show me how to start doing physical therapy at home at the 3-4 week mark.
Staying in Texas until I actually start doing some physical therapy so if something happens, I'm still in Texas where my doctor is.

You guys like my "cash" discount...LOL

BTW: My former doctor here in Sarasota, FL quoted me $54,000 last year for a fusion!
It was less expensive to fly to another state, get a better surgery and a doctor from the Texas Back Institute
with way more experience in ADR. Sometimes, it is worth it to get opinions from other doctors, even if they are in
another state.

[jss]

Vicki,

Congratulations on getting it scheduled. From all I've read, Dr Zigler is as good as it gets for ADR surgeons; there's very little he hasn't seen or done. I've met him a handful of times and very much like his demeanor as well.

Your $40k is quite a bit less than TBI quoted me for cervical ADR back in 2008. In fact, that's approaching the prices that you'd have paid in Europe.

Good luck!

Jeff

[Vicki_in_Florida]

The thing that makes me most nervous is only staying in the hospital for 24 hours.
Even though the hotel is close, once you leave the hospital the oral meds go with you.
At least in the hospital, they can keep you on the morphine drip for more than 24 hours.
After 10 years of taking pain meds, I'm worried they aren't going to work for me because
I'm used to them.

I will keep in touch so everyone on the forum can read about the experience.

This forum helped me so much. I was not happy with my doctor's here in Florida.
Reading this forum was how I found out about the Texas Back Institute.

I have to say that after my first visit, I felt so good about the decision to go there.
What wonderful people. Very nice. Dr. Zigler is a wonderful man. I told him that alot of people on this forum talk very highly of him. It's the first time I felt like I was with the right doctor.
I had been to 6 different doctor's here in Florida and never felt comfortable with any of them. All wanted to do a fusion or keep me on pain management.

Dr. Zigler is the definition of a good doctor. Honest, caring, has great bedside manner, didn't mind to spend time with me, I had an entire list of questions I wrote down and brought with me and he was very happy to discuss every question. I can't say enough good things as to how comforting the Texas Back Institute made me feel.
I told him that I felt like God sent me to him. Doc was humbled and I could see that touched him. Most doctor's don't like to discuss "God". If you ever need a second opinion on your back issues, don't hesitate to go to the TBI. It will be the best airfare you've ever spent!

[furman89grad]

Do you mind if I ask if your insurance is covering any costs? I'm considering going there myself and I'm trying to sort through everything. I wish you the best.

[Vicki_in_Florida]

No, my insurance has a rider on me that won't cover anything having to do with my back.

I just pay them every month because I'm loaded and don't need the money or the coverage...LOL

I have Golden Rule (which really means the golden rule is pay for the insurance but don't use it)

It really ticks us off but we've been battling it for two years and it's at the point where I just need to get it fixed. I've been putting up with the back pain for ten years. Basically had to wait until we could save this much money to pay for it ourselves.

Now I just have to hope that I only need surgery once and nothing goes wrong because I don't have enough money to get something else done!

Lots of prayers going on at this house. Anybody else who would like to pray for me, please do so, it would be greatly appreciated.

[furman89grad]

Thanks. All the best to you!

[Vicki_in_Florida]

Well, I was supposed to have my surgery today at the Texas Back Institute. Was supposed to leave on Monday. Was all packed and ready to go. 1/2 hour before we should be leaving for the airport, the hospital calls to ask where the balance of the money is.

Mike, the man we worked with all week who is in charge of billing at the hospital told us last week that all was fine. I will explain:

We paid in full $19,000 to the doctors
We paid $6000 to the hospital with a $15,000 balance.
We did a conference call with Citibank and Mike on the phone for him to
hear that they were going to increase the limit on the one card which would take three days.

So, basically, Mike just had to wait three days to pull the balance. Was told this by the bank, not us. He agreed that this was all fine.

Now, on the day we are 1/2 hour from leaving for the airport, he calls and says it has to be paid by Thursday. (the bank told him he should be able to pull the balance on Friday).

This guy wanted us to write him a check, and he said they couldn't hold the check.

We weren't going to do that. First of all, that would be a felony. Secondly, they only had to wait until Friday to get a full balance. They already had six thousand plus we paid the doctor's in full already. We argued that if we were using insurance, they would have not gotten paid the day of surgery and would be lucky to have their funds within 60 days.

My husband told him he had no compassion for the fact that a human being was involved here who has terrible pain and needs to get this surgery.

Mike didn't care. Sorry, you can always reschedule.

So, days of fear and anxiety for nothing (diarrhea I was so nervous) plane fare...poofed. The worst part is my hubby's friend was paying for all of this since my insurance won't.

He felt bad that every time he sees me, I'm always hurting.

He cashed in a long term bond of $100,000 which he got penalized $30,000 for cashing it in early. He is paying for my operation. He wanted to put the charges on his credit cards to at least earn some points on it. None of this would have even happened if the hospital took American Express. They don't because "they charge them too much".

The point is that all was fine last week with Mike and he agreed to our terms, and to wait until the day we are leaving to call and change your mind and not care one ounce about what it did to us is unbelievable. I can't even find the words to say how hurtful this was.

Anyone who thinks it's not all about the money can think again. Caring is gone. You pay, you can get help. You can't pay, you are screwed. I've never felt so ashamed of America. Where is compassion? What happened to working with people? Communicating?

Asked TBI if it was possible to talk to Dr Zigler because we had a few questions we wanted to ask him before the procedure and we got a call back saying "Dr Zigler doesn't do phone consults". Wow! We paid a $500 office visit and we already had paid his $19,000 fee. He couldn't give me a call to ask a few questions? I even offered to skip the 15 minute appt they give you the day before surgery (the one that is to go over if you have any last minute questions) in lieu of him talking to us on the phone.

Nope!

Well, guess what...today, the card cleared. They could have pulled it today...earlier than the bank said.

I'm so disappointed. I cried half of the day. It makes you feel like trash if you can't come up with the money to fix yourself when your insurance is a joke ($549mo).

What's next? What if you die and your family has no money? Just dig a whole out back and throw you in?

Now, they want to reschedule me. I'm having a hard time with that. I was so thrilled that I was going to TBI and now ??
I don't know what to do.

That's the kind of "care" I'm going to receive?

I thought you fellow back pain peeps might understand how I feel. I'm bummed!!!

[MeggieLynn]

I'm very, very sorry that you had to experience this. Spine and chronic pain patients always seem to get dragged through the mud. Hopefully TBI can offer a better explanation as to how this could happen. Maybe there's a "patient advocate department" there you could talk to.

My favorite quote: .......Well, doctor. Perhaps you can just tie a rock around my neck and hurl me into the river ....... There's gotta be some procedure code out there you can use for that ........ Especially for a woman my age!!!!! - ML

[Harrison]

So sorry, Vicki. Unfortunately, we are all reminded that your care is a business -- and this systemic issue has been going on for many years:

True Stories from Patients: Insurance Nightmares Abound

True Stories from Patients: Insurance Nightmares Abound

A similar thing happened to me in 2004, the very morning of my surgery. I am sorry to say that this happens all the time.

How can we peeps support you?!

[Vicki_in_Florida]

They want me to reschedule the surgery.
Would you? Should I just look at it like "business" and not feel offended by what they just pulled ?
My hubby doesn't want to go there now. He's for going to Germany. There's no guarantee no matter where you go.

I was ready to have this done and now I don't know what to do.

Maybe it was a sign. Only problem is what was the sign? wrong place or wrong doctors or dont have Adr.

I posted what happened to me so anyone else considering the Texas Back Institute will be prepared for money talks and care is given if you can pay. Never had a hospital treat me so badly.

Also, I didn't mention that they never sent me my pre op care.
4 days before surgery, I had to call and ask for instructions.
I wasn't supposed to take nsaids, vitamins, caffeine and a whole list of drugs one week prior to surgery. I got this info 4 days before my surgery and that was only because I called.
Luckily, I hadn't taken anything on the list.

I thought the TBI was so highly rated?