One of the most common questions I’ve gotten over the last decade is, “how much does stem cell therapy cost?” They actually seem most often to want to know more specifically how much it should cost.
To try to authoritatively answer this now in 2023 we need data from the present and past along with expert perspectives.
These kinds of questions on what are common and reasonable prices have continued in 2023. However, the types of queries have also evolved. Things have gotten more complicated. There are many layers to the question of cost. I cover the key elements here in today’s article. In the big picture, the most worrisome potential cost is to your health if you proceed with unproven stem cell injections.
What is in this article
Stem cell cost questions | Stem cells cost $2,500 to $20,000 | Why do stem cells cost so much? | How have stem cell prices changed? | Stem cell supplement cost | FTC actions and patients as consumers | Does insurance or Medicare cover stem cell therapy? | Patient fundraising | Looking ahead will stem cell costs go down? | References
This post is the most comprehensive look at stem cell treatment cost and costs of related therapies that I’ve seen on the web, especially factoring in our inclusion of historical polling data from past years here on The Niche. The above bullet point list is what is covered in today’s post and you can jump to sections that interest you most by clicking on those table of contents bullet points.
You can also watch the video I made summarizing the key points of this post below.
Stem cell transplant cost questions
Furthermore, it encompasses other important issues related to insurance, fundraising, and approaches to being a smart consumer. Keep in mind that almost all stem cell therapies outside the bone marrow/hematopoietic sphere are not FDA-approved. They mostly lack rigorous data to back them up too. So this post is definitely not recommending you get them. I advise against it, but many people still want info on cost.
Let’s get started.
Stem cells cost $2,500 to $20,000
After more than a decade of blogging about stem cells from just about every angle, it’s interesting to consider trends in the types of questions I get asked. Beyond cost, I also often get asked How much of a stem cell treatment price does insurance cover?
Of course, insurance (or lack thereof) directly bears on cost too. I’ll get more into insurance later in the post.
In a way it’s not so surprising that cost is so much on people’s minds now for a few reasons.
First, as compared to many years back, people now view stem cell injections as a more everyday thing. Stem cell therapy is often available just down the street at a local strip mall.
Back in 2010 and in the 5 or so years after that, people instead more often viewed stem cells as some amazing thing out of reach to them at that time. Now people view stem cell offerings through the lens of consumers.
Sadly, another major part of the reason for the change in perceptions of stem cell treatments is the tidal wave of stem cell clinics from coast to coast in the US selling unproven and sometimes dangerous offerings.
At the same time, some universities and large medical centers also sell stem cell or similar offerings that aren’t proven. I’m worried that that number may be increasing too and patients who may be paying there for unproven stem cells way at the very high end of the cost spectrum, sometimes above $100K.
Other stem cell suppliers and clinics market stem cell-related “stuff” that isn’t real stem cells such as platelet rich plasma or PRP (see my comprehensive guide to PRP including a helpful infographic here) or injections of often “dead” perinatal stem cell products.
For all these reasons about once every year or two, I do polling asking the readers of The Niche here about their experiences.
I’ve done the polling again now in 2020 in a more comprehensive form.
Why do stem cell injections cost so much?
To have a sense of cost, we need to ask patients certain questions. How much did you pay per injection? How many injections did you get? Where did you get them?
Keep in mind that the total cost of stem cell “therapy” is the product of the cost per injection times the # of injections. For instance, if a stem cell injection costs $8,000 and you get 10 injections, your total cost is $80,000.
Unfortunately, the unproven stem cell clinics generally do not volunteer data on how much they charge. They also often encourage patients to get many injections.
Polling data on stem cell injection cost
Our 2020 polling data (you can still participate and I will update this) for stem cell treatments are in the graphic above. Here are some highlights.
The self-reported responses on cost for stem cell treatments, as indicated by respondents to our 2020 polling, suggest the price has gone up.
While the most common answer in 2019 was $2,501-$5,000, in 2020 the most common response was “$10,001-$20,000”, while $2,501-$5,000 was close behind.
The percentage of people paying the most, more than $100,000, was only slightly (probably non-significantly) higher in 2020, but both in 2019 and 2020 the percentage of people paying over $100K was much higher than in 2018 polling.
Keep in mind this is the cost per injection so how many injections do patients typically get? While the number of injections reported most commonly was “1” in both 2019 and 2020, in 2020, the second most common answer was 6-10 injections, a big boost from 2019. Again, more injections end up multiplying things up to boost the total cost. Only a few people in the polling had many injections, but in my view it is still striking to see anyone say they’ve received more than 20 stem cell injections.
How have prices changed for stem cell shots?
For comparison, the 2019 polling can be found here, but some of the key results are captured in a combo screenshot I’ve included here. I got a lot more responses to the polling in 2019 so that makes me more confident in the data than in the 2020 polling so far, but I hope we’ll get more responses moving forward in 2020 and if we do, again I’ll update the info in this post.
What you can see from 2019 is that a plurality of respondents reported getting one stem cell injection, but 60% of people nonetheless got more than one stem cell injection.
Remarkably about 1 in 20-25 people received more than 20 stem cell injections.
About another 1 in 20 people got 6-20 injections. I find this amount of repeat injections to be surprising and concerning as it amplifies health and financial risks.
In terms of cost per injection, the results are pretty similar to 2018 (see at right below) on the whole.
This kind of polling isn’t super scientific, but can gauge trends. Unfortunately, I haven’t really seen much other published data on stem cell clinic costs in actual journals.
I don’t know if it’s noise or not, but the percentage of people paying over $100K is about 2-fold higher in 2019 versus 2018.
There are more people may be paying $10K-$20K as well now in 2020 vs. 2019 or 2018.
Stem cell cost for supplements including Regenokine cost
There is growing interest from the public in stem cell supplements. I did a post on this earlier in 2020 so take a look here, which was essentially a review of stem cell supplements like Regenokine. In terms of cost, while supplements are far less expensive than getting stem cell, PRP, or exosome injections, supplements are still pricey for what you get.
It’s not unusual to pay $100 for a small bottle of stem cell supplements, the other factor to consider is that these supplements generally have no solid, published data behind them so you might as well be paying $100 for water. It’s unclear what risks taking these supplements might bring as well.
FTC actions, patients as consumers, treatment options
On the economic side, you might think that the feds like the FTC would be actively pursuing false or even fraudulent marketing of stem cells via the web and other kinds of advertising, but in total so far the FTC to my knowledge has only taken relatively few actions such as this one. and then some letters for COVID-related marketing of stem cells and other biologics.
Oddly, there were just that a couple blips of FTC activity, especially considering the sea of questionable stem cell clinic-related ads out there. This ranges from major newspapers to inflight magazines to mobile ads on a stem-cell-mobile to television. Then of course there are the infomercial seminars.
Patients should also view themselves as consumers. Savvy customers considering paying money to stem cell clinics should do their homework. I often tell patients to use at a minimum the kinds of tough standards they bring to the car-buying process. Over the last few years Consumer Reports has been interested in the stem cell treatment world and done some reporting that is worth reading.
Does insurance or Medicare cover stem cell therapy?
A common question I hear is the following: is stem cell therapy covered by insurance? Unfortunately for patients desperate to try stem cells, insurance generally does not provide any coverage, which often leads them to take extreme financial measures. These steps can include fundraising (more below).
In my view, the Regenexx brand has made a big deal out of how some employers contribute towards costs of their clinics’ offerings. I’m not so clear on where that stands today in 2020.
Does Medicare cover stem cell therapies? Medicare will generally cover the cost of established bone marrow transplantation type therapies. So stem cell transplant costs, which include hematopoietic stem cell transplant cost, are often zero for patients.
However it does not cover unproven stem cell “therapies.”
Patient fundraising: ethics & effect on net stem cells cost
Patients are often reaching out to me so I know that many of them have gone to extraordinary measures to raise the money to pay to unproven stem cell clinics. It’s painful to think about what little they get in return. Since we are by definition talking about unproven medical procedures here, in my view this money is largely down the drain.
If you have other data on stem cell economic issues such as what patients pay please let me know. Then there’s the issue of what it actually costs the clinics per injection and in turn: what’s their profit margin?
What ends up happening is that patients take out second mortgages on their houses, try to collect funds from friends and relatives, or turn to online fundraising. The internet fundraising efforts most often end up on GoFundMe. This is a trend I’ve been noticing for years. Some colleagues even published a paper on this trend, a very interesting and an important read. The paper is “Crowdfunding for Unproven Stem Cell–Based Interventions” in JAMA by Jeremy Snyder,Leigh Turner , and Valorie A. Crooks.
Supposedly GoFundMe has taken some steps to lower the often ethically thorny stem cell fundraising on its site, but I’m not sure how much it has changed.
Looking ahead will stem cell injection costs go down?
There is pressure on stem cell clinics now in 2023 in large part due to two factors. These could drive costs down or up depending on how things play out. First, the FDA is much more active against unproven stem cell clinics. This may mean more money from the clinics going toward paying attorneys or FDA compliance experts. You’d think this might drive costs up. However, the still large number of clinics may keep pressure to stay with keeping price tags lower.
The second factor is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced many clinics to stop injections temporarily. While a surprising number of clinicsI did by phone were still open in a small informal survey, others were in a holding pattern. This may lower supply which could raise prices. But I think demand is likely way down as many patients stay home to avoid COVID risks. This could be temporary though. As things start re-opening, as they are now, the clinics may be able to capitalize on pent-up demand.
To sum up, the answer to the question, “How do stem cells cost?” largely depends on context. Overall, clinics will charge what they think patients will pay them. It will always be a moving target. I urge patients to be cautious both medically, talking to their doctors, and financially.
References
- The Trouble With Stem Cell Therapy, Jeneen Interlandi, Consumer Reports, January 11, 2018.
- FTC Returns Almost $515,000 to Consumers Who Bought Deceptively Marketed “Amniotic Stem Cell Therapy” Between 2014 and 2017, Federal Trade Commission, April 30,2019.
- Crowdfunding, stem cell interventions and autism spectrum disorder: comparing campaigns related to an international “stem cell clinic” and US academic medical center. Cytotherapy. 2020 Oct 17:S1465-3249(20)30857-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jcyt.2020.09.002.
Some notes:
- This post focuses on offerings of stem cells and other regenerative services. I have not included the costs of proven bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell transplants for blood cancers. These costs can also be high, but generally insurance covers them. Why? Because the therapies are scientifically proven in most cases. In that same sphere, insurers often do not cover bone marrow or hematopoietic stem cell transplants for autoimmune disorders. This category includes multiple sclerosis (MS) and scleroderma. Also, others that are experimental are going to be the patient’s responsibility. However, that might be changing. More data are accumulating that immune ablation followed by hematopoietic stem cell transplants is effective for some autoimmune disorders. We need more published data. I’ve had past concerns about patients being charged for these things. They are still investigational hematopoietic stem cell transplants for autoimmune disorders, such as at Northwestern. You can read about that here.
- It’s very important to factor in the number of injections that patients are receiving. If the cost per injection is, for example, $5,000 then the total cost can go way up. It can go up to $20K if the patient gets 4 injections. Many clinics offer discounts on subsequent stem cell injections after the first one.
- Clinics may also increasingly have to pay more for malpractice insurance as the number of patient lawsuits goes up. They are likely to pass these costs, or at least try to, on to patients.
- This post is not medical or financial advice.