can i bring my father for a by pass operation?

[luck-e and Kookie 0]

  vsmtghdy said:

Try to check your insurance coverage and their policies if they indeed can cover for a new patient with pre-existing disease. Also for a new patient here in the US, it is not that simple to get and find a doctor that will accept him. And you cannot go directly to a specialist (Cardiologist), patient will need a referral from a primary physician. For new patients, the Doctor need to accept the patient and it may take 2-3 months for them to check about the patient's case and status (also of they think patient will be able to pay them, etc..).

That happened to my husband (and he is a US citizen), he is under my insurance coverage since I work in a hospital here in CA. I was looking for a Doctor to accept him as new patient and they told me that it would take 2-3 months and that is how it works. So what I did is talk to the Doctor directly. I talked to an Internal Medicine specialist that works in our hospital to accept my husband, and I got him scheduled for an appointment within a week. Then he was referred to a Cardiologist within a month and then referred to a Cardiac Surgeon within 2-3 weeks.

When he had his Cardiac Catheterization done, the cost was $37,000.00 and that is just for a procedure (and they can also do stenting during this procedure). My husband then underwent an open heart surgery for a valve replacement (which will be the same procedure= open heart= for a Bypass surgery). Lucky for my husband he don't need a bypass but only a valve replacement. But I don't want to seeor even think how much it cost.... My insurance paid for it all, but that is because I have a good Insurance coverage and I work in a hospital as an RN.

If you are worried that the cost of a bypass in the Philippines is 500K, that is way a lot cheaper than doing it here in the US. Just imagine a Cardiac catheterization is already $37K (which is p1,776,000), how much would you think an open heart surgery would cost here if your insurance will not cover for the opeartion? For your father's case, he will be needing work-ups prior to operation, like EKG, 2d-echo/doppler and cardiac cath to determine if he will be needing more than a bypass. Even if these procedures where done in the Philippines, they will have to repeat and do it here again because that is how the procedure works here. Doctors will not do things like surgery without having to check the patient themselves, and they need to do what is required before the operation.

Check your insurance coverage first then find a doctor that will accept your father and if you can do this, then I don't see anything wrong for your father to have his bypass done here in the US. But if you will encounter problems, then might as well have the surgery done there in the Phils. We have good/excellent cardiologist and cardiac surgeons in the Philippines. Don't know who your father's cardiologist is, but Dr. Tamayo is a Cardiologist in St. Luke's and she is also the Department head of Cardiac Rehab there, and she was my mentor during my Residency Training, she is a very nice lady doctor and they do cardiac surgeries at St. Luke's.

(Just an advice)

thank you for that advice. his cardio is Dra Pastores of Makati medical Center. I'll talk to him about this. and also my fiance about the coverage. thank you