Upfront payments for surgery???

Garfield9 wrote:

All up, I was around $8k out of pocket so not cheap!!  But as long as you do the rebates from medicare & PHI first, you can then organise to do a payment plan even if it's $10 a week - they would rather be getting the money then waiting for a longtime so in come the debt collectors.

Hi Garflield9,

I'm a bit confused, who do you organise a payment plan with?
Thanks

You pay the gap upfront for the actual surgeon at least a week before the surgery.  Everything else like your normal visits to your surgeon, psych, dietician or whoever they say must see before the surgery, you pay up front then get rebate from Medicare (no rebate from PHI as you aren't in hospital then).  I also had to pay my anesthetist in full then claim back but each vary.  As soon as you arrive at hospital on the day, you have to pay any co-payments if you have one with your current PHI prior to them admitting you.

Once in hospital, you then get send lots of little bills (there is a form so you claim from Medicare and they then send it to your PHI).  The most annoying thing is they send you a cheque with a name on it (the random Dr who did a blood test when you were in hospital or who injected you with blood thinning) so keep a copy of your original bills so you know where to send each bill (learned that one the hard way lol) and keep track what has & hasn't been claimed as somehow a few bills got missed being sent off to PHI.

When you leave hospital, you are expected to pay for your medications the Dr has prescribed you for when you leave.  Mine was around $70.  

All up, I was around $8k out of pocket so not cheap!!  But as long as you do the rebates from medicare & PHI first, you can then organise to do a payment plan even if it's $10 a week - they would rather be getting the money then waiting for a longtime so in come the debt collectors.

Usually the doc gets directly from the PHI and you only have to pay the gap upfront, but check with your chosen doc or PHI just to make sure.

I gave my surgeon a direct deposit for $4950 and signed some forms. He (presumably) paid anaesethetist, dietician, psych, surgeon assist, hospital extras from the money, and used the forms to get rest from PHI directly. Dunno - other than Optifast, that's all it cost me.

Hi,

I have PHI (Yah!!), but was wondering if the rebates are given at the time of me getting the bills, or do I have to pay upfront, and then claim back from Medicare and PHI?

Thanks,

Fishyoutofwater