Money money money money……moneyyyyyyyy

I want to break down the total costs into chunks to better tell the story.

It cost $1,836.40 the first day I found out I had a tumor.
The biopsy to test the tumor to see if it was cancer cost $7,324.65.
The office visit for them to tell me that I had cancer cost $401.
When I first visited the Mayo Clinic, was admitted right away, and instructed to begin chemo therapy for 6 days was $62,214.11.
After my first high fever from getting a shot of bleomycin, I went to the hospital and was admitted for 6 days cost $30,522.32.
One shot of bleomycin was $841.65, while the total cost of my visit to Rochester for my one day per week visit was about $984.30 per week.
When I needed to go to Mayo for the full 5 day session of chemo, the total was $23,195.50. Just the chemo meds cost $1,821.87 per day. This doesn’t count the cost of me sitting in the chair or the nurses administering the meds either.
The entire chest surgery experience was $121,580.32. The actual day of surgery cost $119,421.50.

Out of the total $303,258.07 that Derek incurred to the medical system, I only had to pay $2,950.73 out of pocket. That is a 99.02% discount. Pretty good deal right?

Unfortunately, because I was 5 weeks short of being included in my company’s FMLA policy since I was only employed there for 6 months, I wasn’t able to continue paying the same rate for health insurance as I was before. My monthly health insurance went from $125 to $450 a month after switching to COBRA which is quite expensive. Total health insurance costs were $3,207.26.

There was a point where I needed to fight Mayo and Healthpartners with my surgery costs. When I checked in for my surgery, the front desk person asked if I wanted a shared room or a private room for $95 a night. This expense would not be covered by insurance. I requested the private room and a month later I received a bill from Mayo for $1700.

I called to get an explanation because my private room should have only been about $475. They said that the additional $1,200 was “post surgery room” costs. This didn’t make sense to me, if I had a shared room, would they just put me in the hallway after surgery?

This resulted in having to call Healthpartners and Mayo clinic back and forth, writing a formal letter for them to investigate, and then calling to object to their objection for my investigation.

Finally they admitted to categorizing the money incorrectly and my bill was adjusted. While I have the time and sound of mind to navigate through all this bureaucracy, I can’t help but think about all the people that aren’t able to advocate for themselves like the elderly and are taken advantage of.

I absolutely count the value of being alive priceless but considering medical expenses are not transparent at all, I think this gives a lot of perspective of what it cost for me to get healthy again in the course of 6 months. I also cannot imagine what life must be like for those who can’t afford health insurance. Did you know that 1 in 3 Gofundme accounts are for medical costs and that people are raising $650 Million on GoFundMe Each Year to cover medical costs?

It is extremely humbling that God lined everything up financially for me prior to being sick. With my multiple disability policies I just so happened to apply for 3 months prior to getting sick, I was able to pay off all medical bills, insurance, and living expenses. I consider myself very lucky that I was able to save up some money too so that I could take an additional 2 months to have extra time to recover and have “me” time before going back to work. I seriously can’t stress enough the importance of good budgeting and money management.