Newly diagnosed - private or public
Hi Yesterday I received preliminary pathology results which said I have an invasive poorly differentiated carcinoma. There were a number of further points noted but the gist is that my lump is cancer...
Forum Discussion
Hi! Sorry that you find yourself here, it's a tough place for planners like us as there are so many unknowns along the way. I'm not even in your state, but wanted to share my experiences as we don't have PHI and and have self funded a few private operations.
When booking/paying etc before they give the price they ask if you have PHI and then quote accordingly. One hospital I managed to catch a glimpse of the sheet that had columns for "self funded" and "PHI" pricing - they charge the PHI funds more than they will generally charge you as a self funded private patient. Some specialists charge the same regardless, however some will even bulk bill if they know you don't have PHI. So you really need to speak directly with the specialists and hospitals, rather than relying on information about what other's PHI funds have been billed.
As well as going completely private, I've also seen specialists privately and they've been able to book me/my child into the public hospital system.
So for my breast cancer, I started by seeing a surgeon privately. One of my first questions was, "do you operate in a public hospital", which he did. If I'd wanted a lumpectomy or only the mastectomy, he could have done the surgery at the public hospital 1-2 weeks after getting my MRI results. However I opted for an immediate implant reconstruction, so I saw a plastic surgeon he recommended who works at the same hospital, privately to speed up the process.
There's pretty firm guidelines on how long they can let you wait in the public system for cancer removal and I ended up waiting the max (30 days from booking) as I was having an immediate reconstruction. This meant they had to coordinate the availability of 3 surgeons (breast, lymph nodes and plastics).
So I did all my pre-surgery stuff privately, then surgery and the immediate follow up was in the public system. It was hoped my surgery choice meant no radio therapy, which thankfully was correct. Once it was known (thanks to a $3000 test) I wouldn't need chemo, I switched back to seeing all the specialists privately. It saves me money as I have to take a whole day off for hospital appointments, but can just leave work 1hr early to get to a late appointment privately.
When weighing up how you may use the lump sum payout, also consider ongoing quality of life/ability to work. I ran out of sick leave as I needed an extra week to recover from surgery. If I had needed radiotherapy or chemo, all that would have had to be done in time using unpaid leave. Due to my work and location, I would have needed to take the 6-7 weeks off for radiotherapy (hence choosing a mastectomy to try to avoid this, as I had no lymph nodes involved). If I'd had chemo, assuming I'd need a week off each round, this would have cost me at least $8k in lost wages. I may have been recommended to take the full 12 weeks off, or more, as I work in a primary school (germs!!!). This year (BC was in 2021) I've dropped to part time as I want to reduce my stress/enjoy time with the kids - definitely feeling more urgency around this since a BC diagnosis! Having a lump of money available would have made this decision much easier.
There is certainly lots to consider, but also a lot of options or combinations of options available too.
When booking/paying etc before they give the price they ask if you have PHI and then quote accordingly. One hospital I managed to catch a glimpse of the sheet that had columns for "self funded" and "PHI" pricing - they charge the PHI funds more than they will generally charge you as a self funded private patient. Some specialists charge the same regardless, however some will even bulk bill if they know you don't have PHI. So you really need to speak directly with the specialists and hospitals, rather than relying on information about what other's PHI funds have been billed.
As well as going completely private, I've also seen specialists privately and they've been able to book me/my child into the public hospital system.
So for my breast cancer, I started by seeing a surgeon privately. One of my first questions was, "do you operate in a public hospital", which he did. If I'd wanted a lumpectomy or only the mastectomy, he could have done the surgery at the public hospital 1-2 weeks after getting my MRI results. However I opted for an immediate implant reconstruction, so I saw a plastic surgeon he recommended who works at the same hospital, privately to speed up the process.
There's pretty firm guidelines on how long they can let you wait in the public system for cancer removal and I ended up waiting the max (30 days from booking) as I was having an immediate reconstruction. This meant they had to coordinate the availability of 3 surgeons (breast, lymph nodes and plastics).
So I did all my pre-surgery stuff privately, then surgery and the immediate follow up was in the public system. It was hoped my surgery choice meant no radio therapy, which thankfully was correct. Once it was known (thanks to a $3000 test) I wouldn't need chemo, I switched back to seeing all the specialists privately. It saves me money as I have to take a whole day off for hospital appointments, but can just leave work 1hr early to get to a late appointment privately.
When weighing up how you may use the lump sum payout, also consider ongoing quality of life/ability to work. I ran out of sick leave as I needed an extra week to recover from surgery. If I had needed radiotherapy or chemo, all that would have had to be done in time using unpaid leave. Due to my work and location, I would have needed to take the 6-7 weeks off for radiotherapy (hence choosing a mastectomy to try to avoid this, as I had no lymph nodes involved). If I'd had chemo, assuming I'd need a week off each round, this would have cost me at least $8k in lost wages. I may have been recommended to take the full 12 weeks off, or more, as I work in a primary school (germs!!!). This year (BC was in 2021) I've dropped to part time as I want to reduce my stress/enjoy time with the kids - definitely feeling more urgency around this since a BC diagnosis! Having a lump of money available would have made this decision much easier.
There is certainly lots to consider, but also a lot of options or combinations of options available too.