Costs of Transplant and After-care

The cost for a liver transplant surgery starts at about $500,000."

Liver transplant
http://www.enlmedical.com/article/003006.htm

ENLMedical separates transplant costs into five parts:

"Surgery charges can be separated into five parts: 1) the surgeon's
fee, 2) the anesthesiologist's fee, 3) the hospital charges, which
includes nursing care and the operating room, 4) the medications, and
5) additional charges.

1. Surgeon's fee: variable
2. Anesthesiologist's fee: averages $350 to $400 per hour
3. Hospital charges: basic rate averages $1,500 to $1,800 per day
(more for the intensive care unit (ICU) or private rooms)
4. Medication charges: $200 to $400
5. Additional charges: assisting surgeon, treatment of complications,
diagnostic procedures (such as blood or X-ray exams), medical
supplies, or equipment use."

Liver transplant
http://www.enlmedical.com/article/003006.htm

------------------------A F T E R * C A R E * C O S T S--------------------------

Anti-rejection medications, which the patient will require for the
rest of his life, are not included in this figure.  Such expenses can
reach more than $21,000 annually:

"According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), estimated
charges for liver transplantation are:

Estimated First-Year Charge (1996 dollars): $314,600
Estimated Annual Follow-up Charge (1996 dollars): $21,900

Following your transplant, you will need several drugs, called
immunosuppresives, to sustain your transplanted liver. The
immunosuppressive medications may include Neoral, Cellcept, Prograf
and Prednisone. The following are estimates and depend on the dosage
and pharmacy used. Note that most health plans pay a percentage of
medication costs, as described in the next section.
# Neoral or Prograf: Total monthly cost is approximately $1,200
# Cellcept: Total monthly cost is approximately $800 (required for
first three months only)
# Prograf: Total monthly cost is approximately $1,077
# Prednisone: Total monthly cost is approximately $12
# Acyclovir or or Cytovene: Total monthly cost is $100-$1,500
(required for first two to three months only)
# Nystatin: Total monthly cost is approximately $200 (required for
first three months only)
# Prilosec: Total monthly cost is approximately $300 (required for
first three months only)"

Transplantation costs
http://www.cpmc.org/advanced/liver/patients/topics/finance.html#Transplantation%20Costs

The National Transplant Assistance Fund provides the following
breakdown for charges billed in the first year after a liver
transplant:

Evaluation:  $16,100
Candidacy (per month): $9,600
Organ Procurement:  $26,900
Hospital:  $121,600
Physician:  $32,500
Follow-up:  $48,400
Immunosuppressants:  $12,800
                   ==========
TOTAL:               $267,900

Average Estimated Charges Billed During First Year Following
Transplantation
http://www.transplantfund.org/homepage2.html


As with any surgery, recovery times vary from patient to patient,
based largely on the patient's age, how sick they were prior to
surgery, and how complicated the surgery ended up being.  Tufts-New
England Medical Center puts the average hospital stay for liver
transplantation at about three weeks:

"The length of hospital stay after surgery largely depends on a
recipient's condition prior to transplant, but is typically three
weeks. Individual patients' circumstances differ after liver
transplantation, so during their final few days in the hospital,
Tufts-NEMC's transplantation team devises a customized outpatient
program for each patient.
 
Liver Transplantation
http://www.nemc.org/surgery/html/trnsplnt/tpliver.htm

A study published in the Southern Medical Journal puts the median
hospital stay for transplant receipients between 10 and 20 days: