For fees for appointments and in-office procedures see appointments page, payment and medicare.

You can choose to have surgery in a private hospital or a public hospital.

The quality of care is the same. The differences are in cost, waiting times, choice of date for surgery and choice of surgeon.

Generally, public hospitals are very inexpensive with little out-of-pocket costs and longer waiting times. Your surgery may be done by any one of the ENT surgeons employed by South West Healthcare include locum surgeons, with assistance from surgeons in training (registrars).

Private hospitals have shorter waiting times and higher out of pocket costs. Your surgery will always be done by Dr Clancy.

You can choose to be treated in a private hospital even if you are not insured. We call this self funding.

Public hospital

All treatment during your hospital stay at South West Healthcare is paid for by the State Government, apart from the cost of any medications you take home from hospital. You will not have to pay for your surgery, nursing care or hospital stay.

If you choose to have surgery in a public hospital, you’ll be given forms to fill in. Give the completed forms to the practice nurse. The nurse will send your forms to the hospital to go onto the public hospital waiting list. The hospital manages the waiting list. The hospital will send you a letter confirming you are on the waiting list. All enquiries about your place on the waiting list should be directed to the hospital. The phone number is on the letter the hospital sends you or you can call 5563 1666 and ask for Elective Surgery Office.

Wait times for surgery are the same whether you choose to be treated as a public patient or if you choose to use your health insurance at a public hospital.

Government guidelines for waiting list times can be found here.

Private hospital

Dr Clancy charges AMA fees. All patients are charged the same fee for each procedure.

You will receive a printed quote from the surgeon. You need to accept this quote before making a booking for surgery. You can choose the date for your surgery. Waiting times are 2-6 weeks for surgery. To compare Dr Clancy’s fees to other surgeon’s fees for the same procedures, you can look at the Australian Government Medical Costs Finder Website. 

Patients with health insurance

After the contribution made by your health fund, towards the surgeon’s fee, you may have a gap to pay. The gap amount depends on the health fund you choose and the level of cover you pay for. This determines the percentage of the fee your health fund will subsidise.

We recommend you contact your health fund to discuss the quote to ensure your level of cover is appropriate and to check any excesses that you may be liable for.

Please note that an excess is different to a gap. An excess payment is an agreement made between you and your health fund, to share the cost of your care. A gap is the difference between the AMA fee and the amount your health fund chooses to contribute to the cost of your care.

To compare your health fund to other funds:

AMA Private Health Insurance Report Card

PrivateHealth.gov.au

For information on the 2019 changes to private health insurance:

  1. contact your health fund to find out how the changes affect your level of cover
  2. read this article in The Conversation summarising the changes
  3. our fees remain unchanged; the excess and rebate from your health insurer may be changing

Patients without health insurance (self funding)

You are responsible for paying the full surgeon fee prior to your procedure. You will also need to pay the hospital and anaesthetist fee before your procedure. After the procedure, you will be eligible for a Medicare rebate for part of the surgeon and anaesthetist fee. The hospital fee is not Medicare rebatable.

Other fees

All patients need to plan for

  1. Hospital fee. Once you have made a booking for surgery, our practice nurse will provide admission forms. Take these to the St John of God Hospital. The hospital will then arrange a quote for your hospital stay. We recommend you budget for an overnight stay, even if it is likely you will have a day stay procedure, to reduce stress and unexpected costs if you do need to stay overnight
  2. Anaesthetist fee. Once you have made a booking for surgery, we will provide your anaesthetist’s contact details. You can contact the anaesthetist directly to obtain a quote for the anaesthetist fee.
  3. Pharmacy fee for medications you take home.

Some patients will need to plan for pathology (blood tests, biopsy), radiology (x-ray) or physiotherapy fees. We will let you know if we think this is likely.

For more information about informed financial consent for treatment in hospital see the AMA patient information here.

The Federal Government has a Medical Cost Finder website to help you understand fees and benchmarks typical fees.

Surgeon fees for surgery in a private hospital

Middle ear ventilation tubes both ears (grommets) $990
Middle ear ventilation tubes one ear (grommets) $660
Adenoidectomy $435
Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy <12 years old $805
Middle ear ventilation tubes and tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy $1300
Tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy >12 years old and adults $1030
Septoplasty and turbinoplasty $2150
Sinus surgery (depends on complexity and single or both sides) $2655-$4610
Septoplasty, turbinoplasty and sinus surgery (depends on complexity and single/both sides) $3730-$5685
Myringoplasty (depends on complexity) $1595-$2640
Exostoses (Surfer’s ear) $2610
Mastoidectomy tympanoplasty $3725
Total thyroidectomy $3130