SOME surgeons are charging thousands of dollars more than their colleagues for the same orthopaedic operation, leaving patients with up to $5500 in out-of-pocket costs.
Paying for a return flight to Adelaide for a hip or knee replacement would, in many cases, be cheaper than seeing a Sydney or Melbourne surgeon, an impractical hypothetical revealing the huge variations in surgeon fees across Australia.
A Medibank report detailing the vast disparities sends a clear signal to patients to shop around for their doctor, taking into account out-of-pocket fees, complication rates and expertise.
The average cost of a hip replacement varied by more than $20,000 ($19,439 to $42,007) depending on the surgeon, showed the joint Medibank and Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) report of all orthopaedic surgeries funded by the health insurer between 2014-2015 and 2015-2016.
For a knee replacement, the average cost ranged from $17,797 to $30,285, and knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair ranged from $5076 to $13,950.
Out-of-pocket costs fluctuated by thousands of dollars, depending on the choice of surgeon, the review of close to 28,000 surgeries released Tuesday found.
Just over one third of surgeons charged no out-of-pocket fees. Among the surgeons who did, their average out-of-pocket bills were as high as $5567 for a hip replacement, $5137 for a knee replacement and $2907 for a knee ACL repair.
Medibank chief medical officer Dr Linda Swan said the report should encourage patients and referring GPs to do their research before settling on an orthopaedic surgeon.
"There is a lot more to selecting a doctor than taking the first person that is recommended to you," Dr Swan said.
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