This Bill for a DCR Seems Outrageous (27M, CA)

I recently got a DCR (Dacryocystorhinostomy, creation of an artificial tear duct) done on both of my eyes. I had a similar procedure done on just one eye late last year, but it over-healed and closed back up a couple months ago.

The pre-insurance bill totals to $59,606.37, with some notable standouts of $5,802.00 for the procedure, $9,000.00 for 150 minutes of anesthesia ($60 a minute) and $39,050.00 for 142 minutes of OR time ($275 a minute). It was similar for the previous procedure (around $40k pre-insurance), though of course a bit less since they only did the one eye.

My insurance got a large discount and then covered a large portion of the actual bill last time, so I’m trying to remind myself not to freak out again, but it’s just really emotionally distressing seeing that large of a bill. It feels outrageously expensive. That’s a year’s worth of modest salary! They’re asking for over $20k an hour for less than 3 hours of work. Is that normal? There’s no conceivable way that the surgeon’s pay and operating costs of the OR actually amounts to that.