Do Hospitals Have Such A Thing As Price Lists For Common Procedures?

[rixalex]

Once one has been diagnosed and knows what sort of surgery is required, is it possible to shop around easily, and get quoted prices, or is it necessary to go through a sit down discussion with a doctor at every hospital, and all the costs that that involves? Appreciate that any quote would not be fixed and would be liable to change dependent on a variety of factors, but would be useful as a guide.

Mission Hospital has quoted 85,000 baht for laparoscopic treatment of endometriosis. 2 days, 1 night. Want to know how competitive that is. Seems pretty steep.

[Sheryl]

Hospitals do have price lists but unless there is a special package on offer, the price will be for the specific procedure only and not all inclusive so you still have to figure in hospital stay (which in turn varies greatly by the standard of room -- be aware that hospital admission depts will do their utmost to push high end VIP rooms on you-- as well as how long you stay), medications and the like. Usually the doctor can give you a ballpark estimate of how much it is likely to reach in total.

Bumrungrad Hospital's website has a feature that will give you an average cost and a range for common procedures, http://www.bumrungrad.com/en/realcost-thailand-surgery Doesn't list this specific procedure though. You can email them, as well as the other main hospitals ,to get a specific quote. be sure your email makes clear whether this is a doiagnostic lap as opposed to laparscopic treatment (see below).

Laparoscopic surgery always costs significantly more than open approaches. 85,000 baht for laparscopic surgery does not seem high to me, to be honest. In fact it seems too low which makes me question if this is actually laparascopic treatment (with lysis of adhesions, removal of chocolate cysts) or just a laparoscopy to confirm the diagnosis. Though in that case I can't see the reason for a 2 day/1 night hospital stay. Should be a same day affair.

Mission is not inexpensive, despite being non-profit; they have a dual pricing system and use the profits from care given to expats to subsidize services to the Thai poor. St. Louis and Bangkok Christian Hospital both tend to be slightly less expensive than Mission. But, Mission has some excellent docs, is a very friendly and nice hospital.

With endometriosis, management is very complex. The most important thing is to have a highly experienced surgeon, preferrably one with a special interest in endometriosis and also one who talks openly and frankly with you about options. For example, depending on how sure it is that you have endometriosis and also on whether you still plan on having children, it might make sense to ask your doctor about the pros and cons of an open approach or even going straight to hysterectomy. Laparasopic removal of chocolate cysts (and if applicable, adhesions) is not always successful in alleviating the pain associated with endometrosis and there may end up being a need for repeat surgery. The risk of that might be less if you go for an open hysterectomy to begin with. Maybe not, but certainly a point to carefully discuss. It's worth shopping around for second and even third opinions on this. Also if you have not tried hormonal therapy, need to consider if that would be an option. (I say this knowing nothing of your history and symptoms, which of course may make some of these options not applicable ).

I am assuming that what is planned is actual laparoscopic surgery rather than a diagnostic lap to confirm suspeted diagnosis. If the latter then 85,000 is high and 2 days/1 night in hospital unnecesaary.