Every once in a while we hear from a patient who says she (or he) would really like to come and be treated by us, but they heard we don’t accept insurance. That is not exactly accurate. First of all, it is highly unlikely that you actually have health insurance; what you almost certainly have is a “health plan”. This is something insurance companies invented to try to control your health care and your money. You have insurance on your car and can take it to any body shop in the country to get it repaired. If you are in a “health plan”, then you have given up some of your freedoms and the insurance company or the government can dictate where you are allowed to go for your health care. Ironic isn’t it, that your car has more freedom than you do? Well, I decided a while back not to lower the standards of my office to the standards of government health care or the for profit insurance industry.

If you choose us to be your doctor (notice the freedom there) your health plan will almost certainly pay for the hospital, anesthesia, pathology, the hospital stay, and so on. The only odd duck in the equation is our surgical fee, which we ask you to pay. Your insurance plan will reimburse you whatever it is that they pay for your thyroidectomy, and my office manager assists you in every way possible to help you get reimbursed by your insurance company. In the last 6 years only three patients have been fully reimbursed, most have been reimbursed about 60% of our fee and some have been reimbursed 80%, and some have not received any reimbursement at all. The fact is, no matter how you want to look at it, if you ask us to be your doctor, it will probably cost you a few dollars more than if you went to an insurance company doctor, or a doctor that works for a government program. Considering the many thousands of thyroid operations we have done over the last 35 years, our patients seem to think this is a pretty good trade off. One really nice lady said that coming to us was like going to private school instead of public school, and you only have to pay tuition for one year!

Not a single person ever comes to us because we are listed in a book of so called allowed health care providers. Patients come here because someone who had first hand knowledge of our practice said “this is the place you need to go”.

We accept all patients, the rich, the poor, the insured, the uninsured. And you know what is really beautiful? Since we don’t let big government or big insurance into our office, we don’t have to pay a gazillion dollars a month in overhead for paper and postage and computers and phone lines and employees and rent, and our surgical fees are therefore quite modest, usually in the range of $2800 to $4200 for most straight forward thyroid operations, and a little more for extensive cancers.

We’re here to care for you if we can, and I’m not embarrassed to add that we will make a reasonable profit in the process. Call if you think we can help you in any way.

R. Anders Rosendahl MD