Mesothelioma Treatment: How Much Does It Cost?
Mesothelioma treatment should begin as soon as possible following a mesothelioma diagnosis. Prompt mesothelioma treatment that is customized to your individual case, age and other health conditions may be able to prolong life by months or even years.
But optimal mesothelioma treatment requires state-of-the-art medical procedures and medications. These can include multiple x-rays and scans using high tech equipment, complicated surgeries, radiation sessions and expensive chemotherapy drugs. All of these may be important to your survival and well worth it. However, you – or someone you can rely on – should try to monitor the costs involved. Most importantly, you will need to figure out which of these possible costs will be covered by your health insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or Veteran’s Administration benefits and which ones will be out-of-pocket expenses.
Mesothelioma Treatment – What You Can Expect to Be Charged?
Mesothelioma treatment costs main expenses can be expected to include fees for doctors, hospital stays, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments. Treating mesothelioma is expensive and overall costs can range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to over a million dollars.
Mesothelioma treatment may be palliative or curative – that is, either to help relieve symptoms or to try to cure the illness. For either, the costs in total are determined by three factors that cannot be controlled:
- Your age when you are diagnosed with mesothelioma. The younger someone is when they are diagnosed the more medical bills they may run up over a period of years.
- The number and types of mesothelioma treatments you will receive. Undergoing a combination of treatments will add to the costs.
- How many years you will survive with mesothelioma. Quite literally, buying more time with mesothelioma treatment will cost more. But living longer through mesothelioma treatment is your right and should be your goal.
Here is a more in-depth look at what current types of mesothelioma treatment may cost based on the most recent figures available.
Chemotherapy – The primary FDA-approved chemotherapy drugs used to treat mesothelioma are Alimta and cisplatin. Used in combination, the estimated costs for an eight-week chemotherapy course can cost $30,000, with the initial treatment at about $7,000.
Radiation – Radiation treatments are done by highly skilled physicians and technicians who have been trained to use very sophisticated medical equipment. Radiation mesothelioma treatment costs can range from $10,000 to $50,000.
Surgery- Surgery sometimes may be the most effective type of mesothelioma treatment. A surgical procedure may be able to remove the diseased tissue to allow other treatments to work better. A typical mesothelioma treatment surgery costs a minimum of $150,000 to $200,000.
Alternative therapies – Alternative types of mesothelioma treatment may be something you will want to consider. How much they will cost will depend on your insurance coverage and what practioners you choose. For example, massage therapy and acupuncture to help alleviate nausea and stress could cost about $100 to 150 per session. Even if covered by insurance, there is likely to be co-pays. Vitamins and special foods also may be recommended to boost your health. They may be expensive and may not be covered by insurance.
Clinical Trial Participation – Newer mesothelioma treatments that may not yet be approved by the FDA may be available to you if you volunteer to participate in a clinical trial experiment. Clinical trials are the only way to obtain experimental mesothelioma treatment with approval from the U.S. government. Although these mesothelioma treatments will be provided to you free of charge as a volunteer, you may have to pay for your travel expenses. If the clinical trial you would like to take part in is far from your home, this could involve air travel, overnight accommodations and meals. If you need to have a caregiver accompany you, these expenses could double. These expenses may recur if you have to return to the research center for follow-up tests. In some instances, medical researchers may let your local health care providers do the follow-up tests and send them the results.
Why Filing a Lawsuit May Help You Defer Mesothelioma Treatment Expenses
If the cost of mesothelioma treatment is something you must confront, it is because someone may have knowingly and illegally exposed you to asbestos. Or asbestos may have found its way into your environment from the clothes or hair of a family member who was not informed that they were working with asbestos. Either way, if you can provide evidence of asbestos exposure through work or military service or from the job or military service of someone who lived with you and if you have a medical mesothelioma diagnosis, you may have grounds for a lawsuit.
A skilled asbestos attorney, like those at Kazan Law, will not take your case, unless they know they can win it for you. An experienced asbestos attorney can arrange a medical lien for you. This will allow you to receive all the treatments you need now but defer payment until you receive a financial verdict or settlement. And they will make sure that you do not have to use an excessive amount of any financial settlement you receive to pay medical bills that have been inflated in anticipation of a settlement claim. We carefully examine all insurance and Medicare itemized claims and medical bills. The result is that you could end up paying less than the billed amount.
Keep Records of All Mesothelioma Treatment Expenses
Mesothelioma treatment expenses can quickly add up. Even if your attorney obtains a medical lien to defer medical expenses until after you receive a financial verdict or settlement, you should keep track of your mesothelioma treatment expenses. It is especially important to know what you are being charged for if you will be negotiating with your health insurance company. You may also want to try to deduct any out-of-pocket expenses from your income taxes.
Keep all your copies of bills and receipts in one place. Put them all into a drawer, a box or a big envelope. Even keep receipts for over-the-counter medications and items like band-aids. If you are not feeling up to it, this would be an ideal task to delegate to someone who has offered their help.
