Triple positive HER + grade 2A
Hi to everyone! I'm newly diagnosed with a grade 2A triple positive breast cancer, at age 40. So, from what I can understand (and I’m an experienced registered nurse… but not in the area of cancer) ...
Forum Discussion
I have top cover, but I was out of pocket for both the surgeon and anesthetist. I had been recommended and chose to go with a private specialist breast oncoplastic surgeon and am very happy with the result.
Surgeon was $4K out of pocket for the following (she wasn't on my health fund list, so I expected out of pocket):
- breast recon (bilateral) following mastectomy
- skin sparing mastectomy (bilateral)
- sentinel node biopsy
The anesthetist was $1,700 out of pocket for the following:
- consultation
- anaesthesia for mastectomy
- surgery time (3hrs 10mins)
- physical status modifier ASA.3
The Medicare rebates are low (this is generally the case for all women's health).
As a proportion, the surgeon's "out of pocket" was better value. The anesthetist was on my health fund list, but chose not to participate in my health fund gap plan and I felt their out of pocket proportion was unreasonably high. I did mention it to both the anesthetist and surgeon, but got no where - I didn't want to delay surgery finding another anesthetist that my surgeon was happy with, so I just went with it.
Surgeon was $4K out of pocket for the following (she wasn't on my health fund list, so I expected out of pocket):
- breast recon (bilateral) following mastectomy
- skin sparing mastectomy (bilateral)
- sentinel node biopsy
The anesthetist was $1,700 out of pocket for the following:
- consultation
- anaesthesia for mastectomy
- surgery time (3hrs 10mins)
- physical status modifier ASA.3
The Medicare rebates are low (this is generally the case for all women's health).
As a proportion, the surgeon's "out of pocket" was better value. The anesthetist was on my health fund list, but chose not to participate in my health fund gap plan and I felt their out of pocket proportion was unreasonably high. I did mention it to both the anesthetist and surgeon, but got no where - I didn't want to delay surgery finding another anesthetist that my surgeon was happy with, so I just went with it.