Understanding the Need

Why a Housing Facility?

Why a Housing Facility? Heart transplant and other cardiac procedures involve an abundance of medical and non-medical costs. In addition to the procedures themselves, patients have to go through extensive pre- and post- operative evaluations, involving frequent hospital visits and expensive medications. While these costs will vary among individual patients and hospitals, they can be a tremendous additional burden to patients and their families on top of existing health concerns. Our hope is to relieve some of this burden, helping to fulfill their basic living needs while enabling them to be close to loved ones during treatment. To learn more about some of the costs patients commonly face, please view the following drop down categories:

Transplant Costs

In 2008 Milliman, Inc., an independent actuarial and healthcare consulting firm, released a research report outlining estimated average billed medical charges for transplants across the U.S.  The findings of this report for heart transplants, shown below, were estimated an average of cost of $787,700.

Included in the total are:

• Pre-transplant costs - all medical costs for the patient incurred during the 30-days prior to hospital admission such as physical evaluations, cross-matching for door compatibility, antibody screening, lab tests, X-rays, etc.

• Procurement costs -  organ retrieval, preservation, transportation, and other acquisition costs.

• Hospital Transplant Admission costs - facility charges for the transplant.

• Physician during transplant costs - professional non-facility services while the recipient is hospitalized for the transplant.

• Post-transplant admission - post-discharge services such as hospital readmissions, lab tests, outpatient visits, etc.

• Immuno-suppressants costs - all outpatient drugs prescribed from discharge for the transplant admission to 180 days post transplant admission.

While some of these significant medical costs can be defrayed by insurance coverage, Medicare and Medicaid, prescription drug assistance programs and other funding sources, the remaining portion remains inaccessibly high for most cardiac patients and their families.  Furthermore, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of medical services in the US has increased by almost 1% more than the increase in cost for all services.  The result is that each year medical costs become relatively more and more expensive compared to the average American's income level.

Non-Medical Costs

Aside from medical expenses, patients often face a host of non-medical costs:

• Lodging – hotels in the New York City area range upwards of $120/night

• Food expenses – lack of access to kitchen facilities to prepare food can mean higher dining expenses

• Transportation – transport to and from the hospital, as well as parking, which can range from $30/day to $80/month

• Child Care

• Lost Wages – if a patient or a caregiver takes an extensive leave of absence from his/her job


For additional information, please visit www.transplantliving.org