Lyme Disease
Lyme disease comes from the bite of an infected blacklegged tick. Caught early, it is often treated with two to four weeks of oral antibiotics and costs relatively little. When it is missed, the infection can reach the joints, heart, or nervous system, which means specialist visits, imaging, and sometimes intravenous antibiotics or hospital care. A minority of people have fatigue, pain, or brain fog that lasts months after treatment, and those visits and lost work hours drive most of the long-term cost.
Estimated healthcare costs you pay and other financial effects across the care timeline.
Estimated impact to you over five years
$1,695-$37,680
Estimated healthcare costs you pay plus costs beyond the medical bill, such as missed earnings. Total medical spending is shown separately and is not added again; it already includes the healthcare portion you may pay. Without coverage or when paying cash, your actual healthcare costs may be much higher than this estimate.
Tick Bite & Early Evaluation
Days 0-30A clinician reviews the tick exposure and any expanding rash. An early rash with known exposure is often treated without waiting for a blood test; otherwise two-step antibody testing is used, since tests can be negative in the first weeks.
Five-year total treatment: Included once in the five-year total
Standard of care: IDSA/AAN/ACR (2020)
Estimated total impact to you
$80-$710
Standard of care
These care steps follow guidelines from these medical groups.
- Infectious Diseases Society of America / American Academy of Neurology / American College of Rheumatology: Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease (2020)
Tick bite care, antibiotics, and later Lyme problems.