I've been dealing with pain and weakness in my right hip for years. Had some hip bursitis last year and got the cortisone injection and did physical therapy last fall and felt like the worst was behind me.
When it came time for open enrollment we picked an HDHP plan with an HSA and a deductible of $6000/$12,000 family. We wanted to stay with the insurer that we had been with for many years as the local provider network is huge and all our doctors and hospitals were included. Also, I was always pleased with our cost (the allowed amount) compared to the retail cost. Just wanted to stay with the insurer that we knew. In our state any of the HDHP plans with an HSA use the aggregate deductible, so for the 2 of us with a family policy our deductible is $12,000. We understood this when we chose that policy. We accepted the risk of the high deductible when we chose the low premium HDHP.
I tried to carry on as usual but over the winter I had new and worse hip pain. Couldn't raise my leg to put my socks and shoes on anymore so I got a sock tool and elastic shoelaces. I couldn't get into a car normally without a lot of pain so I started sitting down and then using a strap to lift my right leg over the car door threshold. Recently I could not manage to climb stairs with each foot, I had to use just the left. I spent a lot of effort just coping and trying to not injure anything further.
I finally had enough and went to the orthopedist today. Xrays show that the joint is bone on bone at one place in the joint. Not the worst case he's seen but getting there. I also have some hip dysplasia, on the right it's a shallow joint, on the left it's normal. He talked to me about an injection that helps many people and could buy me some time. Then he saw my gait and checked further and he said I walk like I have a detached gluteus medius muscle. No wonder it hurts so much!
At that point he recommended that I get the hip replacement. He will also reattach the muscle. It's kind of what I expected as it's just been getting worse and different pain than I used to be able to cope with.
I have no idea how much all this will be but it's at least 2 days in the hospital, plus the surgical costs, PT, office visits, etc, etc.....
We are already in the deductible for about $1200 so I can easily see the remaining $10,800 being used up very quickly. It's our first year with an HSA so I'll fund it to the max of $7550 and just pay the rest. If this was next year I could have had another $7550 in the HSA but, oh well.
The surgery is scheduled for July 1, just 12 days from now. DH and I need to go to a pre-surgery education class on Tuesday and then I also have pre-admission testing and a pre-op conference with the surgeon next week.
I'm in a little bit of shock, I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I saw the xrays and he talked about the detached muscle.
I'm glad we have the medical insurance. After we reach the $12,000 deductible anything else is paid at 100% so I told DH to think about if he needs anything. If I knew at open enrollment that this would be happening this year, would I have chosen different health insurance? Maybe. Maybe not. I'll play with some spreadsheets but it's hard to compare costs of the aggregate deductible to ones with the embedded deductible.
Besides 2 C-sections my only other hospitalization was a gallbladder removal in 1983 when I was in for 5 days. I wish they could do this as out-patient, I really hate the idea of staying in the hospital.
When it came time for open enrollment we picked an HDHP plan with an HSA and a deductible of $6000/$12,000 family. We wanted to stay with the insurer that we had been with for many years as the local provider network is huge and all our doctors and hospitals were included. Also, I was always pleased with our cost (the allowed amount) compared to the retail cost. Just wanted to stay with the insurer that we knew. In our state any of the HDHP plans with an HSA use the aggregate deductible, so for the 2 of us with a family policy our deductible is $12,000. We understood this when we chose that policy. We accepted the risk of the high deductible when we chose the low premium HDHP.
I tried to carry on as usual but over the winter I had new and worse hip pain. Couldn't raise my leg to put my socks and shoes on anymore so I got a sock tool and elastic shoelaces. I couldn't get into a car normally without a lot of pain so I started sitting down and then using a strap to lift my right leg over the car door threshold. Recently I could not manage to climb stairs with each foot, I had to use just the left. I spent a lot of effort just coping and trying to not injure anything further.
I finally had enough and went to the orthopedist today. Xrays show that the joint is bone on bone at one place in the joint. Not the worst case he's seen but getting there. I also have some hip dysplasia, on the right it's a shallow joint, on the left it's normal. He talked to me about an injection that helps many people and could buy me some time. Then he saw my gait and checked further and he said I walk like I have a detached gluteus medius muscle. No wonder it hurts so much!
At that point he recommended that I get the hip replacement. He will also reattach the muscle. It's kind of what I expected as it's just been getting worse and different pain than I used to be able to cope with.
I have no idea how much all this will be but it's at least 2 days in the hospital, plus the surgical costs, PT, office visits, etc, etc.....
We are already in the deductible for about $1200 so I can easily see the remaining $10,800 being used up very quickly. It's our first year with an HSA so I'll fund it to the max of $7550 and just pay the rest. If this was next year I could have had another $7550 in the HSA but, oh well.
The surgery is scheduled for July 1, just 12 days from now. DH and I need to go to a pre-surgery education class on Tuesday and then I also have pre-admission testing and a pre-op conference with the surgeon next week.
I'm in a little bit of shock, I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I saw the xrays and he talked about the detached muscle.
I'm glad we have the medical insurance. After we reach the $12,000 deductible anything else is paid at 100% so I told DH to think about if he needs anything. If I knew at open enrollment that this would be happening this year, would I have chosen different health insurance? Maybe. Maybe not. I'll play with some spreadsheets but it's hard to compare costs of the aggregate deductible to ones with the embedded deductible.
Besides 2 C-sections my only other hospitalization was a gallbladder removal in 1983 when I was in for 5 days. I wish they could do this as out-patient, I really hate the idea of staying in the hospital.
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