The main private hospital groups are encouraging the growth of the self-pay approach to private medical care by offering fixed price packages for treatment. These packages remove the financial risk should an operation have unforeseen complications. The hospital groups have effectively chosen to underwrite the small risk that an operation will be more costly than estimated in order to develop the market. As a result prospective patients do not need to fear that they are opening themselves to unlimited charges when they go for private medical treatment without insurance cover.
Fixed price packages typically cover:
Nuffield Hospitals' Fixed Price Direct package also includes a guarantee that should any complications arise within 30 days of leaving hospital, no further charges will be made, provided the patient has followed the medical advice they were given.
Capio Healthcare UK hospitals publish individual rates for the procedures they offer, which can vary quite significantly from one hospital to another.
Some NHS Trust private patient units offer fixed price packages. The CareHealth Directory of Private Hospitals shows whether a hospital offers fixed price arrangements or not.
Self-pay patients will be given a specific quotation for their treatment following an examination by their consultant. However, the hospital groups publish guide price ranges for the most frequent operations. Examples are given below:
| GUIDE PRICE RANGES FOR FIXED PRICE TREATMENT (£s) July 2003 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| BUPA | Capio | Nuffield | |
| Cataract removal | 1750-2800 | 1650-2604 | 1950-2600 |
| Heart by-pass | 11600-14500 | ||
| Hernia treatment | 1400-1950 | 999-3600 | 1400-1800 |
| Hip replacement | 7000-9000 | 6875-10457 | 5900-7700 |
| Hysterectomy | 4000-4700 | 3438-4289 | |
| Knee replacement | 8500-10800 | 7750-10131 | |
| Varicose vein treatment | 1400-1900 | 1241-2545 | 1350-1600 |
| Vasectomy | 300-1150 | 250-850 | |
BMI does not publish a standard list of guide prices, but fee quotations are available by contacting individual hospitals directly.
A number of overseas hospital charge competitive rates for operations to patients from the UK. See the section on Private Hospitals outside the UK in the CareHealth Directory of Hospitals.