Re: Re: What restrictions do you have with a MOM THR Chris

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I for one didn't know that hospitals could be so generous. I would have never thought that $40,000 would qualify someone for a 60% reduction!

I know that several people have gone to India to have Dr De Smet perform the resurfacing, and I have no doubt that he's competent and that going to India and staying at a resort for during the recovery is certainly appealing, but what I would be concerned about is: Who does the followup? and what if something unforeseen (knock on wood) happens, will there be any docs familiar enough with the resurfacing to treat you, or do you go back to India? Also does De Smet use the only currently FDA approved resurfacing system in the states or does he use a system yet to be approved? I wonder since parts from different systems may not be interchangable, thus leaving the surgeon with fewer options should something happen in the future (he can't just remove failed components, but must remove everything due to component compatability.)

When I made the choice to go ceramic on ceramic for my latest thr it was fairly easy for me, I was aware of the resurfacing option and the pros and cons of the material options currently available. I feel that the surgeons skill is the one biggist factor affecting the outcome. I was comfortable with mine since he had already done my revision, he refused to do MOM due to the pesky ions and he was also against resurfacing, (he had also refused to do ceramic until the latest generation of ceramics came out) thus I had only two options if I wanted my current surgeon to do it: ceramic or highly crosslinked poly. Since I've already had three thrs and didn't like the idea of have three more I went ceramic. Only time will tell if I made the right choice! Have any of your docs offered ceramic? or is that not offered due to cost and your financial situation?

As I stated in my earlier post even with my small head metal on plastic hip I never felt I counld't do anything due to the posibility of dislocation, after the healing period. Any daily dog related activites are no problem. Except during the initial recovery I'm super carefull to aviod charging dogs for fear they may knock me over. I did have an interesting event happen when I was three weeks post op and still on crutches out for a walk with my dog, she suddenly got distracted and ran off taking my crutch with her and leaving me standing there unable to bend over to pick it up, I was stuck unable to move until someone came by and picked up my crutch!

Re: What restrictions do you have with a MOM THR

Thanks PatThat sure opens my eyes to what goes on out there. So your only chance of a free resurf is to find a hospital which will give you the same type of break, or maybe let you pay for the prosthesis and donate the rest. Given the present official attitudes toward resurfacing, that seems a touch unlikely. Good luck in your search. Sorry if I pushed a little too hard into your personal affairs.Chris>> Hi Chris> > Because my husband's company went out of business and we were without any income for almost 5 months, we are currently in the 100 % charity range for our large hospital in Columbus OH. He had a heart attack in May with a triple bypass and the bills were $104,000 His company had dropped our insurance without us knowing about it until 4 months later. Then we could not get any becasue of pre existing conditions. Our lawyer wanted to sue the owner, but there was nothing to gain from it. If your income is less than $25,000, you don't have a lot of assests and you are an Ohio resident - you get 100% charity. They wrote off all but the surgeons bill and our local hospitals bill - so $97,000 was written off. Most people don't know that you can get so much help when you don't have insurance at some large hospitals. It is a sliding scale. If you were making $40,000 you are still elgible for a 60% discount. > > So I checked with the hospital and found out the hospital bills again would be written off at probably 100% due to our current financial condition for a THR. My surgeon would charge $3000 but said they would probably match what the hospital would do. So I can get a THR with a MOM basically for free or just paying the $3000 for the surgeon. Even all the pretesting would be covered. I can't get that in writing, but we have already been thru it once. We are paying $10 a month on the 2 bills left over from the heart attack. So even if I end up with some charges for a hip, I can pay very low monthly payments.> > I don't think people realize how much help there is from some hospitals. The large Non Profit hospitals have very large endowments. As the financial counseler told me - don't worry - we have to spend the money. I use to lay awake at nights worring what would happen if we did not have insurance. We can't get medicare for 5 more years. I had no idea that the hospitals would help people in this way.> > We worked hard all our lives and always had insurance. Now at 61 - we got caught with no jobs and no insurance. I think we are just the begining of many BABY BOOMERS who are going to have the same problem. I don't know how the hospitals will be able to continue to do this for everyone. Our lawyer said they have lots of money - don't worry. But I do. OUr medicial system is bad now - think of where it is heading.> > I have written to Dr. Bose and De Smet. I have their costs. IT is very reasonable - but we have a lot of debt right now since we lived off our credit cards and I don't know if I can load our credit cards up that much more!!!!> > If it were not for this group, I would happily have had a THR. But I know there is something better and trying to figure out what to do. > > Maybe not all hospitals in all states have such plans. I am not sure all in Ohio do. Our local hospital won't work with us at all. We still owe them almost $6000 for a 4 hour stay!!!! So they will get $10 a month for the rest of our lives !!! The heart surgeon who was wonderful dropped his charges from $7000 to $2000 and wants to be paid $10 a month for the rest of our lives too. I don't begrude him his money. He was wonderful. Life becomes very interesting at times.> > I wrote all this in case someone else does not know that they can get help from hospitals. None of the doctors I went to know this at all. Doctors are really dumb about finances. They almost don't believe you. But you can call any patient financial counselor at a hospital and talk with them.> > Pat>

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