[DanL]

I can't say much about UC. What I can say is that for transplant, CBCI was ranked #2 nationally for its size and was beaten out by a children's unit, so we are apples to oranges. The quality of care was extremely good, and we did see and talk to most of the doctors over the course of my inpatient experience. Also, for ongoing treatment, my case has been reviewed by the team of doctors for any changes that have been major, which in my case has been a few times due to relapse and drug reactions. As for medical billing - having worked in the insurance industry for too many years - each insurance company, including medicare and the supplement plans - have negotiated rates. The hospital has a billed rate for service, and then charges the insurance company based on that negotiated rate. I never really paid any attention to what the hospital charged as the "billed rate" but know that the negotiated rate was under $80k for the total inpatient experience, which I thought was a great deal for my life. If only I could buy a house or a car with that kind of negotiating power.

The point of my post - as Ray noted, it is very important to be comfortable with your doctors, hospital, and team as a whole. I have had a great treatment and transplant experience where I am at, and it sounds like Ray has done very well with UC as well. I think that the more we trust our teams, the better our chances of recovery because it removes doubt from our minds, even if the paths are different from person to person and facility to facility.