[joewtny]

Hi folks. After 4 years of widespread central nervous system issues, I was recently diagnosed with a herniated C4/5 and C5/6 with accompanying osteophytes. Unfortunately, my COBRA ran out a year ago, and the top rated local Virginia Spine Institute wants $32k total (which I don't have) for fusion: $20k cash up front for Reston Hospital (for one night?!?), $10k cash up front for the surgeon and $2k for anesthesiologist. They also offer a hybrid fusion w/Brian artificial disc, but that would have been even more out of my reach financially.

Nerdwallet has a tool to search various operations at over 1,000 hospitals nationwide and learn how many patients they do each operation on per year, how much they charge and patient satisfaction percentage. In searching for "surgical spinal fusion of the neck without complications", of the cheapest 24 hospitals nationwide, 14 of them were in Maryland. Unfortunately, a lot of people have reported problems with Maryland spine surgeons, including some on this site, so I'm a little leery there. I did contact one who operates through Johns Hopkins, but he wanted $750 just for the first visit.

Of course, if I had $30k-40k dollars, I'd be looking at the oft-mentioned Dr. Bierstedt in Germany or Dr. Clavel in Spain. I did contact "Gelenk Klinik" in Germany, and a Dr. Haberstroh sent back a "cost prediction" for two ADR's of 15,444 euros for the klinik ($20,588), 2,500 euros for anaesthesia $3,333), 3,000 euros for the doctor ($4,000), 4,000 euros down payment ($5,333) for a grand total of 20,944 euros ($27,920). Better, but still out of my range.

One option is to wait four months until Obamacare kicks in, and the insurance companies have to stop rejecting me for this pre-existing condition. But who knows what a mess that will be starting out, and how many more months I may have to wait after January 1 to get approval from my new insurance company. I would still be looking at a high deductible and 20 percent co-pay. And then approval for what? Fusion? ADR's? Hybrid? What do you think the odds are that they will have to cover artificial discs, or whether they will continue to point to the "gold standard" of fusion? Probably fusion.

So if I want discs over fusion anytime soon, I have to look at other alternatives. Has anyone heard of any experiences recently, positive or negative, of ADR's in other countries, such as Thailand, Singapore, or India? The rupee is plunging (69 to 1 as of today), so I'm especially looking at India. Getting 2 discs from the best surgeons in India for less than $10k sounds good. Friends and relatives freak out when I mention it, but apparently some of their hospitals are world class, and it seems one-fourth of the local doctors here in DC are Indian anyway, so it can't be that different.

Looking at online resumes of the 2 or 3 top Indian surgeons who are advertised through medical tourism sites and YouTube clips, they claim extensive experience with ADR operations. One claims over 2000 spine operations (1500 primary and 500 revisions--not sure what he was revising, but I've asked him) and 150 ADR's. So I'm asking, has anyone heard anything positive or negative about ADR surgery in India? Thanks for your help!

Joe