Thyroid Surgery Cost Without Insurance

Is Thyroid Surgery Outpatient Or Inpatient

Depending on the type of surgery you have, you may be able to go home the same day or may require a short term stay in the hospital. If you only had part of your thyroid gland removed, you may likely be able to go home that same day. Sometimes, if the whole gland has been removed, you may need to spend the day in the hospital to monitor for any complications.

How Much Does Thyroidectomy Surgery Cost

A thyroidectomy is a surgical procedure where the thyroid gland is surgically removed completely or just partially . Located over the larynx, around the trachea, the thyroid functions to produce hormones which are released into the bloodstream to regulate the bodys metabolism.

The thyroid will often have to be removed if the patient has thyroid cancer, an overacted thyroid, a cyst or enlargement which affects the breathing.

How Can I Save Money

If you meet certain income guidelines and have no insurance, then the hospital may be able to work with your situation, offering a steep discount. Talk with the hospitals financing department to see if they can help bring the costs down.

As long as its deemed medically necessary, your health insurance plan should cover it. Since all insurance policies will vary, you should be responsible for your co-pays and deductibles.

All hospitals will vary with its pricing, so its best to talk with the hospitals over the phone to see if they can offer some sort of estimate.

Advertising Disclosure: This content may include referral links. Please read our disclosure policy for more info.

Also Check: Home Thyroid Test Kit Walgreens

What Will My Estimate Look Like

Once you fill out your information in the cost estimate tool, you will receive a total for your portion of the hospital fee. If you provided insurance information, your total will reflect the amount you would owe after your insurance provider pays its share.

Please know that we use information provided by your insurance carrier for your deductible, copay and coinsurance. In some cases, the benefits information in our system may not be current with what your insurance provider has on file. We advise our patients to connect with their insurance provider to get up-to-date information related to their out-of-pocket costs.

Without insurance, you may be responsible for the full cost of the hospital fee. If you are in need of financial assistance, please see our Financial Assistance and Payment Plans section.

Questions To Ask Your Doctor Before Thyroid Surgery

Duke doctors perform thyroid surgery on a patient at Duke Raleigh Hospital.

Your doctor may recommend surgery to remove part or all of your thyroid gland if its overactive, has grown very large, or has nodules, cysts or other growths that areor could becancerous. Here are 8 essential questions to ask before you schedule thyroid surgery.

Learn more about thyroid cancer treatment at Duke.

Don’t Miss: Stage 2 Papillary Thyroid Cancer

How Much Of My Thyroid Will Be Removed

It depends on the reason for your surgery. If your thyroid is overactive , or the whole gland is enlarged and causing symptomssuch as a feeling of pressure or difficulty talking, breathing, or swallowingthe whole thyroid should be removed in a procedure called a total thyroidectomy, said Duke endocrine surgeon Michael Stang, MD. If only half your thyroid is enlarged and causing symptoms, but the other half is normal, then only half of the gland may be removed, said Stang.

If your thyroid cancer is considered low-risk, your doctor may recommend removing half or all your thyroid, depending on your circumstances. If you have an intermediate or high risk of cancer recurrence meaning it has spread outside the thyroidwe recommend removing the whole thyroid gland, Stang said.

Sophisticated imaging, called ultrasound neck mapping, can help your surgeon determine ahead of time how much of your thyroid and which lymph nodes, if any, need to be removed. While not in use everywhere, neck mapping is routine at Duke. The best chance for a cure for thyroid cancer is making sure we remove all of the disease in your initial surgery, said Hadiza S Kazaure, MD. We dont want to overtreat, but we also dont want to undertreat. Knowing exactly how much surgery a patient needs is very important.

Questions To Ask Before Financing

Before you finance your surgery, ask these important questions of the lender and of yourself:

• How long will you have to repay the loan?
• What will the payments be on the debt?
• Will you be able to manage the payments or will you be struggling to pay your bills on time?
• Will you be paying your credit cards off forever because you will be unable to make a payment larger than the minimum?
• What will you do if the cost of surgery is higher than estimated by your surgeon?
• Will you be driven into bankruptcy if the cost, and therefore the payments, are underestimated?
• Will you be able to afford the prescription medication you require after surgery if you are paying your credit card bill?
• Will you be unable to save for your future needs if you are paying for your surgery?

Also Check: Optimal Thyroid Levels For Weight Loss

Compare Prices With Rxsaver Before Filling Your Thyroid Prescription

Losing your job or your health insurance during these uncertain times can be stressful and traumatic. Your thyroid medication is a life-saving drug, and worrying about how you will pay for it should not have to be another thing adding to your stress load.

You should know that there are affordable options for obtaining your medications without insurance. If you need a new prescription, you can access telehealth services from the comfort of your own home. A telehealth provider can also approve refills, and some states are allowing emergency refills of up to 30-day supplies of medication without a prescription.

Remember that you do not have to go without your medicine. Regardless of your financial position or employment situation, can help you find affordable prices for your medication.

levothyroxine: 75 mcg / 30 tablets

Synthroid: 25 mcg / 30 tablets

Levoxyl: 25 mcg / 30 tablets

liothyronine: 5 mcg / 30 tablets

methimazole: 5 mg / 30 tablets

*Lowest online price at national pharmacy chains Costco, CVS, RiteAid, Walgreens and Walmart as of 4/22/2021. Prices vary by location and pharmacy, see RxSaver.com for actual pricing in your area.

Rosanna Sutherby, PharmD

Dr. Rosanna Sutherby, PharmD, is a freelance medical writer who has been a practicing pharmacist in her community for close to 20 years and is a regular contributor to the RxSaver blog. She obtained her Doctor of Pharmacy from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

READ MORE

How Can I Lower My Long

If you take levothyroxine long term, you may be able to lower your costs in the following ways:

• Look into getting a 90-day supply of your medication. You may be able to get a 90-day supply of levothyroxine if approved by your insurance company. This could reduce your number of trips to the pharmacy and help lower the cost of levothyroxine. If youre interested in getting a 90-day supply of this drug, talk with your doctor or insurance provider.
• Use a mail-order pharmacy to get your medication. Using a mail-order pharmacy might help lower your cost for levothyroxine. Plus, you could get your medication without leaving home. Some Medicare plans may help cover the cost of mail-order drugs. You may also be able to get a 90-day supply of the drug through mail order. If you dont have health insurance, talk with your doctor or pharmacist. They may be able to suggest online pharmacy options that could work for you.

You May Like: Thyroid Eye Disease Double Vision Treatment

How To Pay For Surgery Without Insurance

Patients should not have to fret about paying for surgery without insurance, given many viable options. Yet, it still happens.

Everyone can get affordable coverage that pays for preexisting conditions with no waiting period, but the timing is significant. Many patients can get immediate coverage to address emergencies, while others may have to delay until January for a new plan to kick in.

Thyroid Cancer Surgery: What To Consider

Hearing you have a thyroid nodule can be scary, but it doesnt always mean you have cancer. In fact, only about 10% of thyroid nodules are malignant.

But if youve been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, you may be feeling anxious about the next steps, which almost always include surgery.

Below, , shares what to consider before undergoing thyroid cancer surgery.

Get an accurate diagnosis

Its important that youre comfortable with the evaluation of your thyroid nodule before undergoing surgery. Since most nodules arent cancerous, many patients dont need surgery at all.

There are four types of thyroid cancer. About 95% of thyroid cancers are either papillary thyroid cancer or follicular thyroid cancer. Patients with these cancers typically have a good prognosis.

The remaining 5% are medullary thyroid cancer and anaplastic thyroid cancer, which can be more aggressive and may require more extensive treatment.

There are different types of thyroid cancer surgery

The type of surgery your doctor recommends will be based on a risk assessment that includes the tumor pathology, size and location.

The simplest thyroid tumor surgery is a lobectomy. This procedure removes half the thyroid gland. When a thyroid tumor is more likely to spread, a total thyroidectomy may be performed.

If the cancer has spread beyond the thyroid gland to surrounding lymph nodes, a more extensive surgery removing these lymph nodes may be needed.

Ask the right questions

Dont rush into surgery

Also Check: Hashimoto Thyroid Disease Diet Plan

What Are The Risks Of Thyroid Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy

Fine needle aspiration biopsy is a safe procedure with an extremely low risk of complications. Some possible risks include:

• Bleeding at the biopsy site
• Damage to the structures around the thyroid, but this is rare because most doctors would use ultrasound guidance.
• A repeat biopsy may be needed because sometimes, fine needle aspiration may not show cancerous cells.

What Is A Thyroidectomy

There are different kinds of thyroid surgery, and the type chosen depends on the reason you are having it done:

• Total or near-total thyroidectomy: This involves the removal of all or most of the thyroid gland. This surgery is often indicated for large thyroid cancers, large goiters, and Graves’ disease.
• Hemithyroidectomy or thyroid lobectomy: This involves the removal of one of the two lobes of the thyroid gland. This option may be indicated if a thyroid nodule is small and localized to one side of the thyroid gland.
• Isthmusectomy: This involves the removal of the isthmus, the bridge of tissue that crosses over the middle of your trachea and sits between the two thyroid lobes. This surgery is reserved for the removal of small tumors located in the isthmus itself.

Regardless of the type, thyroid surgery is typically a scheduled inpatient procedure performed in a hospital. Less commonly, it may be performed on an outpatient basis in a surgical center.

Research suggests that in the right circumstancesfor example, the patient has support at home during recovery and lives within a reasonable distance from a hospitaloutpatient thyroid surgery may be just as safe as inpatient thyroid surgery.

Also Check: Side Effects Of Radiation For Thyroid Cancer

What Type Of Surgery Do You Need

The best thyroid surgeon will discuss the details of the thyroid nodule surgery before to prepare the patient for the day of surgery. Your surgeon will discuss either you are undergoing thyroidectomy or partial thyroidectomy. The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland consisting of two lobes that are connected by an isthmus that is the group of connective tissue. Thyroid removal surgery is classified depending on the extent of the surgery:

• An Open Thyroid Biopsy– In this the nodule excised directly.
• A hemithyroidectomy or thyroid lobectomy– The surgical procedure is done when there is a need to remove only one lobe.
• An isthmusectomy The isthmus which is connective tissue needs to remove due to the presence of a tumor on it.
• Total Thyroidectomy– The surgical procedure for the complete removal of the thyroid gland

The extent of the surgery depends on the reasons that are discussed the need to be discussed with the doctor/surgeon. For, instance the thyroid nodules surgery may be used which is known as hemithyroidectomy in place of thyroid removal surgery.

Additional Staff & Operating Room

As shown above, the type of surgery you get essentially impacts the price you will have to pay. This is due to the additional staff needed to perform that surgery and the operating room cost.

In addition to the physicians participating in the surgery, at least two additional staff members were in the operating room during the procedure. A circulating nurse is present, charting everything that happens during the procedure and doing the things that the “scrubbed in” staff cannot. A surgical technologist, commonly known as a Surg Tech, or ST, is responsible for handing the surgeon the sterile instruments used during the procedure. The fee for this staff may be included in the operating room fee.

An operating room is billed in 15-minute increments in most facilities. The fees include the sterilization and use of instruments, the anesthesia machinery, the cleaning of the room after the procedure, and other items used during the surgery.

Don’t Miss: What Do You Take For Thyroid

What Is The Follow

Depending on the type of surgery, you may be able to go home right after the surgery. Sometimes, you may need to stay in the hospital for a short stay for observation before you can be released to go home. It is not uncommon to have some difficulty and soreness with swallowing. This typically resolves after a few days, but sometimes may last up to 2 weeks. It is also not too uncommon to experience some hoarseness that usually resolves after several days. You may experience pain and discomfort in the neck from having the surgery, and pain medicines are usually prescribed to manage this pain. Depending on the surgery, the surgeon may also leave some drains in the neck to assist with healing and to prevent complications. These are usually removed before you leave the hospital or at your first office visit. If all of the thyroid glands are removed, your physician will likely prescribe a replacement medicine that you will begin the day after surgery, and will be on indefinitely. Other medications may include calcium supplementation pills that are temporary, in addition to antibiotics.

List Of Standard Charges

In compliance with federal regulation, Atrium Health provides a list of standard charges for each of its facilities in a machine-readable format. The public may view the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Pricing Transparency requirements at the following CMS webpage: cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency. The charge lists posted on this website are accurate, with applicable disclaimers, as of the date indicated below. CMS requires hospitals to update annually. Therefore, ongoing additions and changes made after the date below will not be reflected in the posted files until the next update.

The list charge of a hospital service is not equivalent to the actualamount paid by governmental or commercial insurance companies accordingly,each patients financial responsibility may vary. The amount a patient pays isbased on many factors, including health insurance, benefit plans and otherapplicable discounts, as well as the services provided based on each patientsunique needs.

Atrium Health reviews its hospital charges annually to ensure they accuratelyreflect the high-quality care we seek to provide. In some cases, our chargesare different from other providers when we offer a differing level of care orunique clinical expertise. Overall, Atrium Health works with patients,providers and partners to lower the cost of care through wellness programs,disease management and quality care.

Also Check: New Advances In Thyroid Treatment

Why Is Fine Needle Aspiration Of Thyroid Done

The thyroid gland can develop abnormal lumps, nodules, cysts or the entire gland may be enlarged. These abnormalities may be noticed by the patient or by the doctor during a routine examination. The test can help determine whether the growth is hyperactive or hypoactive and whether it is cancerous, as well as helps the doctor chalk out an appropriate treatment. Not all thyroid nodules need fine needle aspiration biopsy. The doctor may recommend computed tomography scan or an ultrasound of the neck first before proceeding to biopsy. Blood tests of thyroid levels would also be done.

The cause of many thyroid nodules may not always be known. They are more common in women than in men. Exposure to radiation due to occupation, cancer treatment of the chest, head, or neck, and/or genetics can increase the risk of thyroid cancer. Only a small percentage of thyroid nodules are found to be cancerous. Early diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer have a high cure rate.

How Much Does Levothyroxine Cost Without Insurance In 2021

Hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and thyroid cancer are conditions that can affect the production of essential hormones and require medication. Medication for hyperthyroidism can range from about $4 to $93, and medication for hypothyroidism can range from about $16 to $25 for 30 tablets.

Members get access to low-cost urgent care visits, affordable lab testing, and discounted prescriptions with Mira, all for $45 per month. and get your thyroid medication at an affordable price.

Read Also: Radioactive Iodine Treatment For Thyroid Nodules

What Are The Extra Costs

Hospital bills often come with many separate bills, and the estimates mentioned above may or may not include the anesthesiologist fee, surgeons fee, follow-up appointments and so forth. Speak with the hospital ahead of time to see what your estimate will include if they provide you with one.

If the entire thyroid was removed, then the patient will have to take a thyroid hormone replacement medication. Other medication, such as a pain reliever, may be prescribed as well.

The Average Cost For Surgery

Below we outline the out-of-pocket cost for surgeries. The most expensive surgeries are heart valve replacements, heart bypass, and spinal fusion surgeries.

Sources: CBS, Statista

Read Also: Thyroid And Lymph Node Cancer Survival Rate