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CION Cancer Clinics
Pneumonectomy cost in Hyderabad: how the bill is built and what you may pay | CION Cancer Clinics
Removing a whole lung has no single price in Hyderabad. The bill adds up the tests, theatre time, the surgical team, the intensive care days, the ward stay, medicines and the tissue report. Intensive care days and your cover move it most. This page explains each part, what a written estimate should show, and how Aarogyasri, CGHS, ECHS, EHS and cashless insurance change what you pay yourself. CION Cancer Clinics’ surgical oncologists in Hyderabad can talk this through with you.
MM
Medically reviewed by Dr. Muralidhar MuddusettyConsultant Surgical Oncologist · MBBS (AIIMS), MS (Surgery, AIIMS), DNB (Surgical Oncology), MRCS (Edinburgh) · last reviewed September 2026, next review due September 2027
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On this page
- What does a pneumonectomy cost in Hyderabad?
- Which situations cost less, and which cost more?
- What is usually inside a surgery package, and what is not?
- What makes one family pay far more than another?
- How do you get a proper estimate and use your cover?
- What families often believe about the cost, and what is true
- What do the schemes actually cover, and what can this page not tell you?
- Common questions about the cost of a pneumonectomy
The short answer
What does a pneumonectomy cost in Hyderabad?
There is no single price for removing a whole lung in Hyderabad, and any page that gives you one figure is guessing. The bill is built from the tests before surgery, the theatre and the surgical team, the intensive care stay, the ward stay, the medicines and the tissue report. The two things that move it most are how many days you spend in intensive care and what cover you hold.
Why this operation costs more than other lung surgery
A pneumonectomy is the largest of the lung operations. It takes longer in theatre, it almost always means a stay in intensive care, and the hospital stay is longer than for removing one lobe. Heart rhythm problems and chest infections are more common afterwards, and each of those adds days and medicines. So the same hospital will quote more for this than for a smaller lung operation, and the range between a smooth recovery and a difficult one is wide.
What a written estimate should contain
Ask for it in writing, itemised. It should name the room category, the expected number of days in intensive care and on the ward, what happens to the price if those days run over, and which items are billed separately. If an estimate is a single number on a slip of paper, ask for the breakdown before you sign anything.
How the bill varies
Which situations cost less, and which cost more?
Lower band
General ward, short intensive care stay, no complications
A fit patient, a shared ward, a day or two in intensive care and a discharge on schedule. Under Aarogyasri or a scheme, the out-of-pocket part of this is often small.
Middle band
Private room, longer intensive care, extra tests
A private or semi-private room raises every daily charge, and a few extra days in intensive care for the heart rhythm or breathing add the most expensive days on the bill.
Higher band
A complication, a second procedure, or treatment around surgery
A chest infection, a leak at the closed airway, a return to theatre, or chemotherapy and radiotherapy before and after the operation can more than double what was first quoted.
Indicative only, for 2026. Aarogyasri, CGHS, ECHS and EHS are accepted at CION, and most cashless insurers are empanelled. In those cases what you pay yourself is usually very different from the hospital sticker figure. There is no EMI offer. Call the helpline for an estimate against your own cover.
Read the estimate
What is usually inside a surgery package, and what is not?
- Usually inside: theatre charges, the surgeon and anaesthetist, and the planned ward days
- Usually inside: routine blood tests, the chest X-ray and the tissue report on the removed lung
- Often extra: intensive care days beyond the number quoted
- Often extra: blood transfusions, special medicines and any second procedure
- Often extra: the PET-CT, breathing tests and heart scan done before the operation
- Almost always extra: chemotherapy or radiotherapy given before or after surgery
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What moves the figure
What makes one family pay far more than another?
Days in intensive care
The most expensive days on any bill. A pneumonectomy usually means at least one or two. A heart rhythm problem, a chest infection or trouble breathing can turn that into a week, and estimates rarely include that possibility.
The room you choose
Room category sets not only the room charge but often the surgeon fee, the nursing rate and the procedure rate. Insurers with a room rent limit will cut their share of everything if you pick a room above it.
Your cover
Aarogyasri pays a fixed package for listed operations, with little or nothing from you. CGHS, ECHS and EHS work to their own rate lists. Cashless insurance pays up to your sum insured after deductions.
Treatment around the operation
Where chemotherapy or radiotherapy is given before or after surgery, it is billed as a separate course. Families often budget for the operation and are caught out by what follows it.
Before you sign
How do you get a proper estimate and use your cover?
Bring everything to the first visit
Scans, biopsy report, breathing tests, your scheme card or policy. The surgeon needs the reports to plan; the billing desk needs the card to tell you what is covered.
Ask for a written, itemised estimate
With the room category, the expected intensive care and ward days, and the rate if those days run over. Ask what is excluded. Keep a copy on your phone.
Start pre-authorisation early
Scheme and insurer approval takes days, sometimes longer for a large operation. The hospital insurance desk files it; you chase it. Surgery is usually not booked until it comes back.
Ask what happens if the plan changes
A longer stay or a second procedure needs a fresh approval. Ask who files it and how long it takes, so you are not asked to pay a deposit at midnight.
Keep every bill and receipt
For reimbursement claims, for tax, and for the next approval. Ask for a final itemised bill at discharge and check it against the estimate before paying the balance.
Commonly believed
What families often believe about the cost, and what is true
"The quote is the final bill."
A quote assumes the planned number of days and no complications. After a pneumonectomy, extra intensive care days are common enough that you should ask how the bill changes if they happen, and keep some money aside for it.
"A dearer hospital means a safer operation."
Price follows the room, the brand and the location far more than the skill in the theatre. What predicts a safer operation is how often the surgeon and the centre do this particular operation, and whether they have an intensive care team used to lung patients. Ask that, not the price.
"Aarogyasri patients get a lesser operation."
The operation is the same. What differs is the room, and sometimes the waiting time for approval. If a centre suggests the scheme package will not cover the proper operation, ask for that in writing and seek a second opinion.
Being straight with you
What do the schemes actually cover, and what can this page not tell you?
Aarogyasri covers listed cancer operations for eligible Telangana families at empanelled hospitals, paying the hospital a fixed package. Lung removal for cancer is generally within the listed thoracic surgery procedures. CGHS, ECHS and EHS beneficiaries are treated at approved rates, usually cashless with a referral. Cashless insurance pays what your policy allows, less any room rent deduction, co-payment or item the policy excludes.
What is often still paid from your pocket
Tests done before approval came through, medicines bought outside, attendant meals and travel, a room above your limit, and treatment given after discharge. Under a scheme these are usually small; under a low-value policy they can be most of the bill. Ask the insurance desk to list them before admission.
What this page cannot tell you
It cannot give you your figure. That needs the surgeon's plan, the hospital rate card, your cover and your room choice, together. It cannot tell you whether surgery is the right treatment; that is a decision for your treating team, and cost should be discussed openly as part of it, not after. If you would like help understanding an estimate you have been given, call the helpline with your card details and the estimate in front of you.
Questions we are asked
Common questions about the cost of a pneumonectomy
Why will nobody give me a fixed price over the phone?
Because the price depends on things not yet known: the room, the number of intensive care days, whether any treatment comes before or after, and your cover. A hospital that gives a fixed figure without seeing your reports is guessing. Ask instead for a written, itemised estimate after the surgeon has seen you.
Does Aarogyasri cover a pneumonectomy?
Lung surgery for cancer falls within the listed thoracic procedures, and eligible families are treated at empanelled hospitals under a fixed package. Confirm at the hospital insurance desk with your card, because eligibility and the current list are checked case by case. Call the helpline if you want that checked before you travel.
Is keyhole lung removal cheaper or dearer?
A whole lung is most often removed through an open cut, because of the size of the operation. Where a keyhole or robotic approach is offered, the disposable instruments usually cost more, while a shorter stay may cost less. Ask your centre what it offers and what each approach would change on the bill.
What if the bill runs over the pre-authorised amount?
The hospital files an enhancement request with the insurer or scheme, with the reason. This can take a day or more. Ask at admission who files it and whether you will be asked for a deposit while it is pending, so there are no surprises on a difficult night.
Are the PET-CT and breathing tests part of the surgery cost?
Usually not. Tests done before admission are billed on their own, and some insurers only cover them if surgery follows within a set period. Keep the receipts and ask your insurer about pre-hospitalisation cover. Under Aarogyasri, tests at the empanelled hospital are generally within the package once approved.
Do we pay for the ICU separately?
Most estimates include a stated number of intensive care days. Days beyond that are charged at the daily rate, which is the highest rate on the bill. Ask for that daily rate in writing, and ask what happens under your cover if the stay is longer than planned.
Is there any EMI or instalment option?
CION does not offer an EMI arrangement. The realistic ways to lower what you pay are a government scheme, a cashless insurer, and a room category within your policy limit. The insurance desk can walk you through which applies to you.
What should I ask before choosing where to have it done?
How many pneumonectomies the surgeon and the centre do each year, whether there is an intensive care team used to lung patients, whether cases go to a tumour board, and whether your scheme or insurer is empanelled there. Those four questions matter more than the price on the estimate.
What moves the figure
What affects the cost
Four things change the total more than anything else.
The technique used
A shaped or image-guided delivery costs more than a conventional one, and is chosen on clinical grounds rather than preference.
How many sessions
The total is driven by the number of sittings or cycles, not by a single per-visit figure.
Supporting tests
Scans, blood work and pathology done alongside treatment are billed separately.
Your cover
Aarogyasri, CGHS, ECHS, EHS or cashless insurance usually change the out-of-pocket figure substantially.
Paying for it
Insurance, schemes and payment
What you actually pay usually differs a great deal from the sticker figure.
AarogyasriEmpanelled. Bring the card and a referral where you have one.
CGHS / ECHS / EHSAccepted at CION centres for eligible treatment.
Cashless insuranceMost major insurers are empanelled. Pre-authorisation is handled by our desk.
Self-payItemised estimate given before treatment starts. No EMI scheme exists.
Accreditation and empanelment
- NABH
- NABL
- ISO 9001:2015
- ArogyaSri empanelled
- CGHS accepted
- ECHS accepted
- EHS accepted
- Major cashless insurers
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Dr. C. Raghavendra Reddy
MBBS(Gold Medal), DNB(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Gold Medal)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Bharati Devi Gorantla
MBBS, MD(General Medicine), DM(Medical Oncology)(Adyar,Chennai), ECMO, MRCP SCE(UK)
Medical Oncologist
Dr. Owais Mohammed
MBBS, MD (General Medicine), DrNB (Medical Oncology), ECMO, MRCP SCE (Medical Oncology) (UK)
Medical Oncologist
Medical Oncologist
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Dr. Muralidhar Muddusetty
MBBS (AIIMS), MS (Surgery) (AIIMS), DNB (Surgical Oncology), MRCS (Edinburgh)
Surgical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Surgical Oncologist
Dr. Vinay Mamidala
MBBS, MS(General Surgery), M.Ch(Surgical Oncology), FMAS, FARIS(Ongoing)
Surgical Oncologist
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Radiation Oncologist
Radiation Oncologist
Hematologist
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Dr. Vajja Sandeep Kumar
MBBS, MS (General Surgery), DrNB (Surgical Oncology), FALS Oncology
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Where to find us
Our centres in and around Hyderabad
Addressed by landmark, because that is how this city navigates. A surgical consultation can be booked at any of these centres through one helpline, and your team will tell you where the operation itself takes place.
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Sources
- American Cancer Society — Surgery for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
- Cancer Research UK — Types of lung cancer surgery
- American Cancer Society — Financial and insurance matters
- National Cancer Institute — Surgery to Treat Cancer
This page is general information, not a prescription. Do not change or stop any treatment based on what you read here. If anything is worrying you, contact your own treating team — or call our helpline and we will help you reach the right specialist.
Keep reading
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Cost, Insurance and Schemes for Cancer SurgeryHow packages, room limits and schemes work for any cancer operationPneumonectomy: Removing an Entire LungWhat is being paid for, step by stepTests to Check You Can Tolerate Losing a LungThe tests that are often billed before the package startsRecovery Timeline After PneumonectomyHow long the stay and the recovery usually runChoosing a Surgeon and a CentreThe questions that matter more than the price
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