a riskThe implant is excluded

A fixed package price for an operation that installs a manufactured device, quoted without the device. The headline number covers theatre time, the surgical team, the anaesthetist and a stated number of ward nights; the component that will be screwed, cemented or seated into the patient is billed separately at a price the page does not give.

The worked case sits on this site's knee record. Bumrungrad International Hospital in Bangkok publishes package JOINT04 for a unilateral total knee replacement at 356,500 baht, and titles the page "Total Knee Replacement Surgery (Exclude implant)". The inclusion list runs to eight lines: three hours of operating theatre, the nursing and surgical team fees inside those three hours, three nights on the surgical ward, equipment and supplies, medications related to the procedure, surgeon, assistant surgeon if needed, anaesthesiologist. The exclusion list runs to ten, and the implant is the first of them. Also excluded: the first consultation and the follow-up visits, specialist consultations, any night past the third and any ICU, blood transfusion, laboratory and imaging before or after surgery, take-home medication, outpatient charges before admission, and complex or emergency cases. The price is stated valid until 31 December 2026.

Nothing about that page is concealed. The exclusion is in the title. The point is what it does to a comparison: a knee package that excludes the implant and a knee price at home that includes it are two different objects, and the difference between them is not a discount.

The pattern is not confined to joints. A dental implant package quoted per fixture may exclude the abutment and the crown; a cardiac package may exclude the valve or the stent; a cochlear package may exclude the processor.

Trade practice — the reason is procurement rather than marketing. Implant prices move with the manufacturer, the model, the size and the contract, and a hospital that fixed a package price including the device would be quoting a component cost it does not control. The effect on a price page is the same either way.

The United Kingdom's General Medical Council requires a doctor on its register to "be clear about what is included in quoted prices and what other charges might be payable, including possible charges for revision or routine follow up", and to tell patients if an implanted device may need to be removed or replaced and after how long. A clinic abroad is not on that register.

The exclusion is read off the page: the title, the line that names the device, and the validity date. Where a package names a device it usually names a tier — a standard implant against a premium one, a manual technique against a robot-assisted one — and the tier changes the number. Every price row on this site carries its own inclusion and exclusion list in the provider's words for this reason, and the exclusion list is the half worth reading.

As of 16 September 2026 the package this record is built on lists 356,500 baht for one knee, implant excluded, valid until 31 December 2026. This project has not found a published figure for what that implant costs at that hospital, and has not found any destination that requires an implant price to be published alongside a package.

The Bumrungrad knee package that this record works from is carried once, on the knee replacement record, so the price table counts it once.