Questions About The Mayo Clinic In Az

[Latacia]

I am currently seeing a electrocardiologist 2 1/2 hours away from the town that I live because the cardiologist in my town no nothing about pots. I feel as though I am not getting enough care from my current doc and I would like to try and make a vist to see Dr.Benson in AZ. I have heard people talk about him on here and on other fourms about how much of a good doc he is with people with pots. My question would be what is the cost of being seen there at the clinic. I am currently on MS medicaid. Do they take out of state medicaid? After you receive an appointment and you arrive at the clinic what happens next, like how many days are you there or does it depend on the situation? Thanks in advance for the anwsers.

[sisblostg]

I went to the mayo in Scottsdale last year. I was surprised at how low the cost was compared to my local hospital which had done basically nothing for me. I went to see Dr Goodman, autonomic specialist (I liked him, nice guy, professional but not warm and fuzzy). I also had a cardiac consult and some cardiac testing (basically to clear me for starting my POTS recovery). I have 2 insurnaces, Medicare and a plan via my husbands work. They would not take my husbands insurance because it is a local HMO to my state. They were not sure what medicare would cover and told me up front that if any test was over $500 I would be told and offered payment options. I went through 5 days of tests and medicare covered 80% of all of them. I was lucky because Dr Goodman has rights in MN and the MN Mayo is an assigned medicare provider, Az is not so my bills were easier.

My full week of tests cost $1855. Medicare covered about $1400. Even if medicare did not cover the $1855 I would have happily gone on a payment plan for the wonderful care and answers I got.

If money is tight, and you need to stay overnight, use hotwire or priceline. Do not stay at the hotels in the parking lot. They are way overpriced and not too nice (IMO). I got a really nice golf condo off season for $30 a night a few blocks away and was super confortable, when the mayo hotel was over $200.

I kind of doubt they will take out of state medicaid there. I think MN takes alot more plans and AZ and FL are more selective. When you call for an appointment they had the billing office that called me a few times before my appointment and went over the options.

My 3 hour intial consulatation was $180, follow ups were $80. The intial cardiac consult was 1 hour (since it was not my primary issue) and was about $90. This to me was very reasonable since my local "I know knowing about POTS and could care less" dr charges $225 for 15 minutes.

The autonomic screening was about $225, that included tilt table, qsart, and a few other "fun" tests. I know things like ECHO's and halter monitors were way cheaper and the results were very very quick. My entire 1.5 days of cardiac workup ran less then $500.

After your intial consulatation the dr gives you a schedule. They try hard with out of state to work as fast as possible. Dr Goodman knew my insurnace and the one expensive test a series of MRI's he said was fine to have back in my home state since it would be covered at 100%. It was not a necessary test, just one to rule out an underlying issue. When I had the test done back in my state Dr. Goodman did a free phone consult about the results and what I should do.

I say it is worth it to at least call and talk to the billing people. They were way nicer then alot of hospital billing people.