Costs of older generation pacemakers and which typ

Hello,
my name is Clareyne de Vries and am currently working on a report that entails the history and product phases of the cardiac pacemaker for a subject in the University of Twente.
It should include a part about the changes in price over the years (since 1950's), however, there in lies my problem. I cannot find anything on prices about pacemakers, even after contacting musea.
I was hoping some one here could give me some insight, especially from the older generations.
It doesn't have to be precise or much...quite frankly I would be glad with anything at the moment.
I would truly be greatfull.

With hope and best regards,

6 Comments

Complex !

by IAN MC - 2015-01-21 05:01:14

Hi Kira I see that you are in Holland , I am in the UK , most of the contributors to the Pacemaker Club seem to live in the U.S.A . Other countries are well-represented.

This in itself may lead to problems for you in interpreting data . As an example we are told that here in the UK, where our health system is run by the state , a Pacemaker currently costs around 2,000 pounds ( about 3,000 U.S dollars )

But, our American friends quote astronomic figures for the cost of a pacemaker, often in excess of 30,000 dollars; this is because everybody involved in their system adds to the costs, the hospitals, the insurance companies etc.

Another problem is that many people use the term " Pacemaker " generically to embrace pacemakers regardless of how many leads they have, internal defibrillators and bi-ventricular synchronisation devices .But a dishwasher costs lots more than a microwave even though they are both "domestic appliances " . You need to make sure that they are comparing like with like before making conclusions about prices .

So take care when attempting to interpret price trends , there may be a lot of variables hiding in there.

I found this from the New York Times of Sept 11th, 1982 , I hope it is helpful :-

"At a committee hearing today, Whitney A. McFarlin, vice president of the pacing systems group of Medtronic Inc., testified that the total cost of treating a pacemaker patient, in constant dollars, had dropped 43 percent from 1965 to 1980.

But the committee report said: ''Pacemakers costing $600 to $900 to manufacture are being billed to hospitals for $2,000 to $5,000. Hospitals, without any correlating expense, increase the cost by 50 to 150 percent and pass the total on to Medicare and other thirdparty payers.''

Best of luck and I hope that you get some useful responses

Ian

Astounding Costs

by Artist - 2015-01-21 06:01:34

In response to the cost questions, I have examined the Medicare Summary Notice for Part B (Medical Insurance) that lists the expenses for my 6 November 2014 pacemaker implant. I am shocked. I have a St. Jude model 2011. The summary lists the PM, dual chamber, rate-responsive as costing $ 10,685.48 and the leads at $5.544.76. insertion of the pacemaker at $21.134.88 and then there are all sorts of additional charges for medical supplies, injections, EKGs etc. I am just totally amazed! I am so grateful that I have Medicare and Tricare For Life insurance. I will be paying nothing for all of this! Whew!

pm price

by Bebie - 2015-01-21 07:01:55

I had mine last year a single lead pacer. Fo the unit alone it costed 3,500 dollars. I hope it will help.

Cost in Australia.

by Alma Annie - 2015-01-21 10:01:56

I had my Medtronic pm June 2011. It wasn't a basic one, but a 'middle range' according to EP. Basic would have been $A6000.00, which would have been used under the public health system. Mine was $A11,000.00, plus $A3000.00 for the leads. My insurance paid for everything, tests, lab etc. and hospital stay of 3 weeks (I had other heart issues) which cost me $A250.00 excess. I am always shocked at the cost of medical care in US. If I did not have private health insurance I would have had pm free under our Medicare system.
Alma Annie

Don'tr be shocked at ....

by donr - 2015-01-22 01:01:07

...the cost of medical care in the US. The numbers you see are a fiction & are written off before the final bill is paid.

For instance - that Medicare bill in the comment just above yours lists the price at $10,000 for the PM itself. Artist did not tell you how much the hosp actually rec'd from Medicare & Tricare For Life. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of $5,000. What is the true cost of a PM? I don't think anyone in here can tell you - all because they really don't know. Everyone pays a different price for them. Note the different prices paid just in this thread. Ian's report from the US Congress is probably as close as you will find to the real cost.

What that Congressional report did NOT say is that the hosp was probably only paid 5,000 USD for that PM, very close to the actual cost - but that is a fiction, also.

If the guts of a PM actually cost 5-600 USD, I'd be very surprised. The chips are all made in fully automated factories - they are too tiny to have anything done by hand to assemble them. My guess is based on the costs of circuit boards for complex TV sets & amplifier/tuners - replacement boards as big as both your hands are close to 250 USD. A Titanium case that is welded shut is probably 100 USD. The stringent quality requirements probably wash out 5-6% of the production. There are 10's of millions of PM's implanted around the world & I've only heard about 2 that were actual PM failures. Lousy sample, I know, but indicative of the level of quality & reliability required in medical devices.

Artist mentioned another 10,000 USD as the cost for the surgeon to implant it. Actually, that was his BILL to Medicare. If he rec'd 3,000 USD for the job he was lucky. Out of that, he has to pay all his office expenses, his hired help, rent, mal-practice insurance of about 100,000 USD per year (That's what my #2 Daughter pays for it as an ER Doc) just so he can have another element of expense called "Profit." Oh, yes, he pays between 38 & 60% of the gross profit as taxes (depends on the state he lives in.) Probably has close to 3,000 USD he pays per month to repay Med school loans - that goes on for close to 20 years. Billing & records have become a true nightmare. My cardio had 4 people in his office that did nothing but billing. My record was three folders, each of them 3 inches thick. He was going to be forced to convert them to digital records at some horrendous cost per file,so he sold his practice to a major hospital - & WE HATE the service we are getting now. He doesn't like it much better then we do, nor does his nursing/support staff.

What has happened since our wonderful Medicare was established in the mid-1960's is that the Govt has tried to control prices by refusing to pay what they are billed. They get away with it because they are the Govt & like w/ taxes, they hold a figurative gun to your head & you accept what they pay you, regardless of what the real cost is. Consequently, the medical profession has jacked its prices up to outlandish levels so that they get paid at least a survival amount. OR they are refusing to take Medicare patients

If you want to find out the REAL COST for a medical procedure, walk in and offer to pay cash right up front, no haggling, no billing, no hassels. You will find that the price suddenly drops from the billed cost to about 1/3 of that. Every hospital has an office that takes care of those people.

Then there are the people who do not pay their bills - ever. We have a law that no one can be turned away from basic if only palliative treatment - nice law, people who are hurting deserve to be taken care of. And they are. But someone has to pay for it. That someone is NOT the Govt that passed that law. The hospitals have to eat those costs. One hosp that our ER Doc daughter worked at was losing over 1 Million USD per year through their ER because people did not pay their bills.

Yep, it stinks, but we are stuck with it till it breaks our economic backs & we start over. There are 350 Million of us that have to live with it & well over 50 % of us think it's going to the dogs. If you think it's bad NOW, just wait till NEXT year & see what it will cost for medical treatment. We are already short doctors & we have about 104 med schools that graduate at least 100 MD's per year - that's over10,000 doctors per year being added to the system and we are still short.

Donr

Medical Bills

by Grateful Heart - 2015-01-23 09:01:27


I'm in the US too. When I receive my EOB (Explanation of Benefits), there is ALWAYS a price adjustment. The adjustment usually appears to be at least 2/3 of the original charge. Then there are charges that your insurance does not pay or cover, whether it was included in another procedure code or deemed not necessary. More and more are being considered not necessary. And then, finally, your co-pay if you have one.

If you use a "participating" Doctor (a Doctor that agrees to and accepts a pre-approved payment amount for the procedure or visit in question) he is agreeing to that lower fee and then you pay the co-pay amount, also known in advance.

Some of my Doctors have also "teamed up" with hospitals. It's a business decision forced on by the new HC law. Pick a hospital or lose business....or maybe go out of business.

All these records have to be digital now under the new healthcare law so most of my Doctors sit in front of their computers while they ask you questions about what is wrong and how you are feeling. Some sit with their back to you while typing into the computer because that is how the computer is set up in their exam rooms. Eventually, they get to talking to you instead of the computer screens with their questions.

This new HC law has not been fully implemented yet. This year will bring more challenges to Doctors, hospitals and patients. The other shoe has not dropped.

Nothing is free in this World, not even freedom. There is always a price.

Grateful Heart

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