I was wondering if anyone knows how the money for surgeries get distributed. I've heard that surgeons only make a couple hundred bucks for a six figure surgery. Where does the rest go? I could be horribly misinformed, so can someone please help me out? Thanks.
I had surgery last year and there were several bills that my insurance company and I paid:
1) the surgeon. His fee was cut a lot by the insurance through a pre-negotiated contract.
2) anesthesiologist. also paid less than what was billed due to an arrangement with the insurance company
3) hospital. this was the largest bill and included use of the OR, x-rays, equipment and devices used in the surgery, recovery room, "the bed", drugs, blood tests.
The big ticket items are usually the disposables and implantable stuff that the surgeon uses, not the surgeon's fee.
My surgeon also uses physician assistants who are on his payroll so their salaries & benefits come out of his fee, too. He works in a very big group and I suspect that everyone is salaried with perhaps an end of the year bonus depending on productivity. Some surgeons also make $$ as consultants, lecturers (for continuing medical education), etc for device and pharmaceutical manufacturers. There is some scandal in all of that right now (conflict of interest issues) but that is a major source of income for some specialists.
