$540,842

Article from Kaiser Health News

So Fresenius (second largest for-profit dialysis provider) charged him almost $14k per session. From my previous post, the cost per session for DaVita is ~$280 so that’s ~50x markup. I know they have to charge private insurance patients more but that seems ridiculous. When I was on hemodialysis, the list price was ~$30k per month at the first clinic but my insurance paid ~$21k. Still crazy expensive vs. that it cost the clinic to provide the service. The second clinic charged $2,039.50 list; the insurance rate is either $729.50 or $458.28. Without a itemized bill, it’s hard to figure out what is in the numbers.

I also received the first bill for my peritoneal dialysis. I thought it was going to be a lot cheaper than hemodialysis. It is cheaper but not by much. The list cost is $874.49/day and my insurance pays $328.79/day. For June, the net bill came out to ~$10k so about half of what hemodialysis cost me.

This is month 25 of dialysis for me. That means I have about 8 months of private insurance left. After that I will have to go on Medicare which means a lot less profit (or even a loss) for my dialysis provider. I’m grateful for my company’s health insurance (self-funded) but seriously, the American healthcare/insurance system is messed up. Not sure what the solution is but we seem to have the highest costs in the world.