First visit
You may come to see Professor Steadman because you were referred by your general practitioner, but more commonly you may be referred by another specialist. That specialist might be another orthopaedic surgeon, or a surgeon who has discovered a lump or bump or even a rare sarcoma as part of your care.
Because your first visit is often very time-consuming, additional costs apply above the Medicare schedule fee. Contact Professor Steadman’s rooms to find out how much your first visit will cost.
Following surgery, the operative surgical fee covers your visits for a certain period depedning on the procedure.
After that follow-up care is completed, there will be additional ongoing consultation costs.
Private Health Insurance
Check your private insurance status to make sure you will be covered as an inpatient. We can generally provide you with an early tentative surgical item number, so you can ring your health fund and check your coverage.
Out of pocket expenses (gap cover)
Generally, we use “Known Gap” services with the health funds 'Known Gap' scheme for inpatient care. Many operations for oncology are particularly time consuming and additional costs may apply as operations can go for 4 to 8 hours with multiple teams.
Uninsured patients
Cost of uninsured surgery are quite extreme due to hospital and theatre charges. These are not fees charged by Professor Steadman but by the hospital. Intermediate public hospital surgery is no longer available due to public hospital protocols.
Operations
Private surgery operations are provided in private hospitals. Professor Steadman predominantly provides his private operations through the Mater Private Hospital.
Medicare
Medicare provides some cover for both in and outpatient care. Private health insurance only provides inpatient care.
Billing for consultations and in-room investigations and procedures
There are very few procedures that we do in our rooms. You may be charged for the MDT service and any investigations including radiology and pathology and surgical navigation which will be billed through the separate medical providers.
Surgical consulting fees
The secretary will discuss these with you when we make contact for the booking, so please ask.
Billing for surgical procedures
Our fees have been developed in accordance with the Australian Medical Association (AMA) and the Medical Benefits Scheme (MBS) as set out by the Australian Health Service Alliance (AHSA) and Medicare. All funds refund different percentages of fees that they determine for the same item numbers when you have in hospital care.
Note: All “gap” or ”known gap” payments are required to be paid prior to your procedure. You will be provided with a financial statement of your surgical gap as a consent form that you must sign before surgery as the government suggest, so you have a clear financial understanding of your commitment.
Professor Steadman can only provide an estimate or bill for his own services and cannot provide a fee for other doctors or ancillary services. People often find this distressing that so many teams and doctors are involved but this is how the government and health funds dictate that it works.
Other costs
Those other doctors may include, a surgical assistant who is another doctor that helps in surgery, your anaesthetist who safely puts you to sleep and wakes you up, the navigation team if required for computerised surgery, a pathologist who might look at the tissue either in or after the surgery, a radiologist who might take x-rays or scans during or after surgery or a physician who might need to look after other aspects of your health or co-morbidities. These doctors will bill you separately and/or advise of their costs.
Payment
For outpatient care we accept all forms of payment including credit cards of all types, debit card and direct debit transfer. We also accept cash payments and provide receipts for the services rendered for Medicare or your health fund, and help you make your Medicare claim.
Payment Methods
We accept the following Payment Methods:
- Cash.
- Cheque.
- Credit Card – including VISA, MasterCard. We do not accept American Express (AMEX), or Diners Club.
- Electronic funds transfer at point of sale (EFTPOS).
- Direct deposit via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) are accepted but for internet security we will provide you with the details (by phone).
