Los Angeles, CA. It all made common sense said Drs. David and Michael Albin, board-certified general surgeons with offices in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and Pasadena. Drs. David and Michael Albin are a father and son team of hernia specialist, one of the only such teams in the USA and maybe the world.
A patient may pay a hospital $6,000 to 10,000 for a hernia repair surgery depending on their location in our beautiful State of California. What made matters worse was that insurance patients receive steep discounts, while the uninsured who are “out of contract” pay through the nose. The system as we know it is completely upside-down. On top of this, they must pay the surgeon and anesthesia fee. After speaking with my plastic surgery friends, I was determined to follow their model and build my own surgery center that would specialize in hernia repair surgery. This was why I started the Hernia Center of Southern California. Now we have been able to perform the hernia surgery in our state-of-the-art surgery center for the all-inclusive hernia surgery cost of $4000.
The economic recession has forced many patients to give up their health insurance because they were unable to afford their premium payments. In addition, many of the insured patients have high deductibles. Until recently, my own Blue Cross family insurance policy had a family deductible of $8,000 and a monthly premium of $1,600 with no major family illness. You may ask, why have insurance at all. Many of our patients have done the same. Recently, and out of need, pocket their own monthly medical insurance premiums and deductibles and only see their private physician a few times a year while paying out of pocket.
The Hernia Center of Southern California is a hernia practice that provides patients with a concierge type of individual based care. Yet because our volume is large, performing 80 to 100 operations on a monthly basis, we able to obtain very high-quality results. We frequently receive referrals from other general surgeons who are unable to take care of their difficult hernia patients. Here, experience matters and at the Hernia Center of Southern California, we have performed over 12,000 hernia operations over the last 25 years.
Dr. David and Michael Albin perform hernia surgery for the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles Police Department, CHP, LA Unified School District, Homeland Security, and professional athletes, celebrities and proudly the US Military. Our patients include construction workers who are uninsured, patients who are unemployed with a hernia and need hernia surgery so that they are eligible for employment. We also get patients who are trying to enlist in the military but cannot get accepted until their hernia is fixed.
Physicians do not traditionally post a price list. There is a certain financial risk involved. If the operation takes longer than expected or if more supplies are needed, the price remains the same. We do have a few exceptions. Dr. Albin realized that the expected increase in patients would decrease the risk. The increase in hernia surgery volume made up for the heavily discounted price of hernia surgery.
After patients contact our office, they will be scheduled for a consultation with either Dr. David Albin or Dr. Michael Albin, where they will determine if a hernia is present and discuss treatment options. We perform hernia surgery using the traditional open hernia surgery approach as well as laparoscopic hernia surgery and Robotic hernia surgery. In addition, patients will receive a comprehensive medical examination to ensure a safe hernia surgery. We also have a web site through which patient can complete an online form and request a phone consultation, which is done by Dr. David Albin or Dr. Michael Albin.
One of the things that we enjoy with our system is that we reward the uninsured and many low-income people with high quality care at a price that is much lower than if they had insurance.
Our vision was to create the Hernia Center of Southern California so that we may provide quality care to our hernia patients at an affordable price.
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