Your anaesthesia account explained:
It is important for you to take note that your anaesthesiologist will charge/bill you separately from your hospital and surgeon. This bill will not include consumables used during the procedure that are provided by the hospital. This practice will charge Discovery Executive rates, as a uniform billing policy is required throughout practice. Your medical aid option may, or may not, completely cover this amount. If your medical aid does not cover this amount, this practice reserves the right to hold you liable for the outstanding amount (co-payment). While hospitalisation is usually fully covered, the medical aid may not necessarily pay independent health care providers fully (including your anaesthetist). It is your responsibility to ensure that the medical aid authorizes the procedure and, if you have gap cover, ensure that co-payments will also be settled by the relevant party.
Your anaesthetic bill will be made up of 3 separate entities: a pre-operative risk assessment, anaesthetic time (rands/time unit), and a specific fee for the specific procedure you will have. Additionally, there are various factors (modifiers) that might affect the ultimate fee, as compared to the estimated amount. These factors include, but are not limited to, duration of the operation, emergency surgery, obesity, hypotensive procedures, insertion of special intravascular catheters, and ICU care. You may also be charged if the anaesthesiologist uses their own equipment or consumables that are not provided by the hospital. It is also important to note that while the anaesthesiologist will bill per time unit, there is no control over how long the surgeon/procedure will take.
You are well within your rights to request a quotation prior to undergoing anaesthesia. Please keep in mind that for emergency surgery, it is not always possible to delay surgery for the acquisition of a quote. Furthermore, it is important to note that it is often difficult to estimate a final quotation as various billable factors are not within the control of the anaesthesiologist e.g. time of surgery, resuscitative measures in the case of a complication, etc.