I had my baby at the tail end of July and I've finally started receiving the bills in the mail. Already, I am shocked by how much my OB bill is alone, and then I've received a separate bill in the mail for the "professional fee" of the anesthesiologist, which does not even include the cost of the actual medication! AHHH!!! I am soooooo afraid to see that hospital bill in the mail, BUT, I admit that I never asked exactly how much these procedures would cost! (I only knew I would be responsible for 20% of the billed amount through insurance). I wish medical providers could be upfront about these costs, but again, I know I bear the responsibility since I should have found out beforehand? I will attempt to find out these things for baby #2, but how did you handle the bills? Were you surprised? Pleasantly? Not so pleasantly? Or did you know beforehand how much things would cost?
Did You Know Exactly How Much Having Your Baby Would Cost, or Was It a Surprise Bill in the Mail?
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We knew all the costs of our PGD, IVF, and FET, bc we knew our insurance covered nothing. Now that I'm 22 weeks pregnant with twins, when we receive a bill from our OB's office we aren't too shocked however we still call our insurance to ask what they covered, why they don't cover the portion we have to pay. I guess we call our insurance for piece of mind. Also, on two phone calls they have made errors which resulted in our bill being lower, so that was good.
To answer your question - no, we don't know the details of what the hospital will cost us. We do know what our insurance covers while we're there, so that's something!!!
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We knew what our insurance would cover, which meant a ward style room for after delivery. We upgraded to a private room, which we paid for out of pocket. Everything else was covered by our insurance.
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i know that we'll be paying at least $5000 since that's our deductible -- YEESH!
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Not preg yet, but I called our ins and made them go over EVERYTHING with me. I was confused about how future baby would be billed- like was their hospital care part of the 'maternity deductible' or did they get their own deductible for staying in the hospital? What about drugs? Was an epi included? My answer is that everything (baby care, labs, all prenatal care- including one ultrasound unless the said there was a med need for more, in which case those would be covered too, the whole kit & kaboodle!) is included in my deductible, which is a flat fee rather than a %, so we're aware of how much this is going to cost.
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Since our insurance is pretty crappy, I asked my coworkers (who are my friends), how much they paid out of pocket for their babies. My OB let me know how much it would cost after the first visit, and when we registered with the hospital, they told us how much the anesthesiologist would cost if we didn't have insurance.
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It was a surprise, a horrible surprise. We also had to pay the 20% and it was so much more than I expected. We, unfortunately, also had a NICU bill. If we hadn't had the NICU bill it would have been alright, but that NICU bill was killer (especially since I never even TALKED to a NICU doctor!). My DH hated getting the mail for awhile, for fear of a new bill. But, we are pretty sure we are done getting bills (he's almost six months old now!). Next time we are switching insurance!
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We have co-insurance, so we were required to pay the OB's bill upfront. Fortunately, it was a small amount. We had to pay for the anesthesia & hospital room separate, though.
We have an out of pocket max & had the money in savings, so it wasn't a huge shock when the hospital bills started rolling in.
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Our deductible is $3000, and were required to have 1/2 put down at our OB by the "x-th" week, which was due by 7/27. That amount is applied towards our deductible, so we have 1500 left to cover with a $3000 out of pocket maximum and 100% covered after the deductible has been met.
I was talking to a friend the other day who jokingly said to bring your own meds. Joking...but not really joking. When she went down her itemized list, she said her hospital billed her $14/pill every time she had to take some hydrocodone for pain.
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I was surprised how much the bills were. Thousands and thousands!!!
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Since wagon sr. Works in academia we always have amazing insurance. I never even saw a bill with either delivery.
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I have no idea what we wil be paying, and a bit nervous to figure it all out!
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$0. Thank you Canada. Come move up here ladies! It's a wonderland of snow, maternity leave, healthcare, and maple syrup.
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Our delivery will cost $16,000, roughly (assuming it's a vaginal, normal delivery), but we only need to pay $250. We have great insurance.
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Insurance covered doctor's fees + hospital fees 100%. we only paid $500 (deductible) for Lo. Hospital bill was about 17k and doctor's fees 4k.. Yikes!
This time around we have to pay 20% because we switched insurance.
Guessing 20% of 21k so hopefully no more than 5k. -
The total bill was $20k for me and about $5k for LO. In the end, I was billed right around $1500 in total; insurance paid the rest.
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Ours was a surprise bill. The grand total was ridiculously low though... $3500 for me/the delivery and like $1000-ish for little one. I had a med-free, natural delivery but still... it seemed so cheap?? In all I paid $316 out of pocket.
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I knew exactly what I would have to pay since I had to add maternity coverage and spent a lot of time talking to Blue Cross about what it would cover and exactly what we'd be responsible for. If I didn't need a csection, we would have paid less than $200, but I had to meet my deductible of $2500 since LO was breech.
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I have an HMO so I know what copays are for hospital stays, maternity/prenatal visits, etc., so I think I know what I will be paying, but not 100%.
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The epidural which became disconnected and gave me no pain relief was 2 freakin grand. Can't wait to see the rest.
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Because we're planning a home birth, we pay for our midwives' services up front and submit to insurance to verify how much they will cover/compensate (the midwives are considered out of network). DH also set up a flex spending account that will cover the incidental costs.
It's a bit over 3K for the midwife services, which include all pre- and post-natal care and a birth pool. The cost of a birth kit and supplies (a couple of hundred) and any lab work/testing are separate, but accounted for, so there are no surprises. Home birth is ultimately way cheaper than hospital birth, but could end up being more expensive for us because of insurance coverage.
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We had a not-so-great insurance with my first and ended up paying around $3500 out of pocket with paying 10% after meeting our deductible which was around $2k.. With #2, so far nothing? And he was born end of March. But our insurance premiums are double what it used to be. We do have a $750 family deductible but my maternity is 100% paid for. Crazy different than with our old insurance.
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We delivered at 20 wks, had demerol as a pain killer, no nursery stay, and at the hospital for about 24 hours. Our bill was about $471 )that we had to pay), which I felt wasn't too bad. My insurance covered over 90%.
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I'm very lucky, my total bill for everything will be $200 but yes I looked it up ahead of time.
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Our OB bill is already being paid, our last payment is this month, They were upfront about the cost of our doctor appointments, ect. for standard care. U/S would be more if needed, besides the one standard that is included (20 week.) They did inform us if we had a C-Section it would be more at the hospital due to the additonal doctor's needed, but I'm a little scared on what that bill will look like. I know we are to cover 20% and our deductible is met already, but it's just a wait and see kind of thing!
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I knew my deductible was $300 for each night that I stayed in the hospital. i was still interested in seeing the total bill and was shocked that it came up to be over $20,000 but my portion of the bill was still only $300 per night, which came to a total of $1200 since I stayed 4 nights. My insurance is great with maternity care, they covered pretty much everything plus all my OB visits and ultrasounds
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LO #1 We paid $150 total. I think the charges to my insurances were over $40,000.
New Insurance this time with LO#2, We pay 10% with a $1500 out of pocket maximum each calendar year. Sort of stinks having a January due date because we might meet the $1500 in 2012, but it starts back at $0 on 1/1 We are big on Flex Spending for medical expenses - helps put the money aside.
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i know the min and max i'll be paying because of my deductible and my out of pocket max. i called my insurance to check and they were very helpful and let me know that my LO will be covered under my insurance for 30 days after her birth even if i don't sign her up under my plan afterward.
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We had to pay a certain amount ahead of time, and then insurance covered the rest.
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We have great insurance. Other than paying our monthly insurance premiums (less than $100/month), we didn't pay for anything. All visits, labs, ultrasounds, delivery, overnight stay was all paid for. Never received a bill.
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We ended up paying our deductible and coinsurance. It was a lot. The OB bill was more than expected, the hospital bills weren't that bad. I think total we paid $3500. I had a bit of that covered by hospitalization coverage I have though.
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we got an estimate at our first or second appt that our out of pocket costs would be $250 after insurance.
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I called my insurance prior to becoming pregnant AND once I was, and both times was told only $250 co-pay at the hospital would be our only cost. Only cost to me so far during my pregnancy was a $20 co-pay at my first prenatal visit. I'm currently 34 weeks.
This thread is scaring me into wanting to call one last time to double, triple check though!
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Wow, am I sadly naive to think everything is covered on our plan? This thread is freaking me out! I seriously expected to pay nothing or maybe a standard hospital co-pay. I guess I should call and check, haha! I'm always learning things on HB
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Canadian so I didn't have any out of pocket costs for prenatal care or labour and delivery. I got a bill in the mail from the hospital for our private room bc my insurance didn't cover it all. Our out of pocket cost was $27 and I was totally shocked I'd even have to pay a penny. DH talked me down and we paid the money.
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