Elbow Replacement Cost

Typical costs:

• Without health insurance, an elbow replacement surgery typically costs a total of $35,000 to $40,000 or more. The hospital fee generally would be $30,000 to $35,000 or more, and a surgeon's fee would range from $2,000 to $4,000 or more, according to the office off one orthopedic surgeon who performs elbow replacements; a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services^[1] transparency initiative shows that surgeon fees for joint replacements can reach $5,000.
• An elbow replacement typically would be covered by health insurance if medically necessary.
• With health insurance, typical expenses could include doctor visit copays, drug copays and coinsurance for the surgery. This could total thousands of dollars or the yearly out-of-pocket maximum.

• In a total elbow replacement, the patient generally will be put under general anesthesia or regional anesthesia plus a relaxant. Then the surgeon will make an incision and remove the elbow joint and drill holes into the arm bones, then put the artificial joint in place using bone cement. A hospital stay of up to four days will be necessary. It can take 12 weeks or longer to regain use of the elbow and a year to fully recover.
• The National Institutes of Health^[2] has a primer on elbow replacement surgery.

• Several sessions of physical therapy might be required at $50 to $75 per hour.

• Some orthopedic specialists and hospitals offer discounts for uninsured/cash-paying patients. For example, Southern California Orthopedic Institute offers discounted services for cash-paying patients, and Northwest Community Hospital Orthopedic Services Center^[3] , in Chicago, offers discounts for prompt payment.

• Look for a board-certified orthopedic surgeon who has extensive experience with total elbow replacements. The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery^[4] offers an orthopedic surgeon finder by city, state or zip code.
• Elbow replacement is a technically difficult surgery and not that many are done each year in the United States, so it is especially important to look for an experienced surgeon at a center that performs at least several elbow replacements per year, according to the University of Washington Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine.
• Risks of elbow replacement include reaction to anesthesia, blood clots, infection, allergic reaction to the implanted hardware and loosening of the artificial joint.

1.  www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Research/HealthCareConInit/index....
2.  www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007258.htm
3.  www.nch.org/medical-services/orthopedic-services/index.php
4.  www.abos.org/find-a-certified-orthopaedic-surgeon.aspx

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