Cost of Bone Marrow Transplantation

[Lucky]

Hi all,

Can somebody please tell me approximately how much does it cost to have bone marrow transplantation done? Suppose there is no insurance coverage and somebody has SAA, what would be approximate cost for all procedures involved in BMT, including all medicines and different procedures. If you could tell me approximate/maximum cost of it, I would appreciate a lot!


Thank you all. I have so many questions and going through this forum I find answers to most of them.

[Marlene]

I don't have a baseline cost for a BMT. If you are paying out of pocket, it's pretty expensive. Financial aid options should be looked into. Medicines are expensive. Even transfusion can run you a few thousand dollar for each.

We were very fortunate that our insurance took care of all it back in 2002. We very rarely saw any of the bills. Don't think that would happen today though. John did high dose cytoxan. The problem with trying to estimate costs is that you never know what will come up during and after treatment. John had numerous unintended consequences from the drugs and that kept him in the hospital for 3 months. I did see some of the charges right after that and it was close to 400K. I estimated that John's cost of treatments probably was close to $1+ M over two years.

As you know, what the hospital charges and what insurance pays are two different amounts so I don't know how much the insurance company paid.

I wish I could help you more on this but there are so many variable that enter into the cost it would be difficult to give you a range. Even the hospital you choose will make a difference in price. There really is no transparency in medical charges.

Maybe others have a better handle on the "average" cost of a BMT.

[Lucky]

Originally Posted by Marlene

I don't have a baseline cost for a BMT. If you are paying out of pocket, it's pretty expensive. Financial aid options should be looked into. Medicines are expensive. Even transfusion can run you a few thousand dollar for each.

We were very fortunate that our insurance took care of all it back in 2002. We very rarely saw any of the bills. Don't think that would happen today though. John did high dose cytoxan. The problem with trying to estimate costs is that you never know what will come up during and after treatment. John had numerous unintended consequences from the drugs and that kept him in the hospital for 3 months. I did see some of the charges right after that and it was close to 400K. I estimated that John's cost of treatments probably was close to $1+ M over two years.

As you know, what the hospital charges and what insurance pays are two different amounts so I don't know how much the insurance company paid.

I wish I could help you more on this but there are so many variable that enter into the cost it would be difficult to give you a range. Even the hospital you choose will make a difference in price. There really is no transparency in medical charges.

Maybe others have a better handle on the "average" cost of a BMT.

Thank you Marlene! The thing is that there are countries where insurance does not cover all expenses associated with severe diseases, such as AA. Even if you have insurance, and it's 100% coverage, it still has some upper limit which you can not go over. and that upper limit is far (very far) from anything being close to 400K. and basically you have to pay for the things out of your own pocket. that's why i was concerned about the financing issue this much. Thanks again!