Narrator: In 1954, doctors successfully
transplanted the first human organ: a kidney
taken from a patient's identical twin.
Today, around 20,000 kidneys are transplanted
every year, and based on estimates from one report,
those transplants cost a total of more than $8 billion,
and that's just for kidneys.
Factor in the 15,000 other organs transplanted each year,
and you've got yourself a booming business.
Hospitals are in the business of saving lives.
Keyword here being "business,"
and organ transplants, well, they're a pretty great way
to add to your bottom line.
Katrina A. Bramstedt: Transplant centers are a
good revenue center for hospitals. There are some
departments in hospitals that don't make a lot of money.
That's absolutely true.
I'd be lying if I said, "Nah." It's true,
and then there's other departments in hospitals
including transplant that do tend to, yeah,
be profitable for hospitals, absolutely.
Narrator: According to a report
published by the consulting firm Milliman,
the average billed cost for a heart transplant
before insurance is an estimated $1.38 million,
and other organs, well, they're not much cheaper.
Around half of those costs come from what's called
hospital transplant admission.
That includes room and board in the hospital
along with things like nursing care
and medication during your stay.
Now, for a heart transplant, which might require
something like two weeks of inpatient care,
hospital transplant admission adds up
to an average of nearly $900,000 a transplant.
Some doctors say these prices are so high
in part because the hospital's trying to make money.
Dr. Preben Brandenhoff: Here's the dichotomy between
hospital interests and our interests as doctors
and patient advocates.
Narrator: That's Dr. Preben Brandenhoff.
He's a cardiothoracic surgeon
who specializes in heart and lung transplants.
Brandenhoff: The hospital, they just want
to make money to run the hospital.
If you want to be really stone-cold,
they're not into taking care of patients.
Narrator: But Dr. Brandenhoff says there's a reason
why transplants are so much more expensive
than other procedures.
Take heart bypass surgery for example.
It can cost up to $130,000,
but that's just a fraction of the cost
of a heart transplant.
To understand why, just consider what it takes
to transplant an organ.
If the organ donor is deceased,
there's the expensive medication
to keep the organs healthy,
then there's the charted flights
to get the organs where they need to go.
Brandenhoff: If it is one of these
where I go to Hawaii and get the lungs
because from the time I have the lungs out
and ready to go, it'll be five hours going
back to the mainland.
Narrator: And then there's all the trained personnel.
Bramstedt: So you may have 10 surgeons
in an operating room working, so it's huge.
Narrator: And each of those surgeons is
making a lot of money.
According to Salary.com, the average base salary
for a heart transplant surgeon is
over $600,000 a year compared to, say, a trauma surgeon
who makes under $400,000 a year.
And finally, there's even more expensive medication
to help the body accept the new organ.
Bramstedt: It can cost somebody a couple thousand dollars
a month if they don't have insurance.
Narrator: So by the time it's all tallied up,
a seven-figure transplant isn't all that surprising,
even though the organ might come for free.
And when you consider what you get for it,
you know, life, it might even be a pretty good deal.