So we got a bill/agreement from our hospital with an "estimate" portion we'd have to pay and estimate of what our insurance will cover (we have PPO). I thought "that's not as bad as I expected..." but DH said it's just an "upfront bill" they want us to pay NOW before we deliver. And that later we'll get a bill for the rest of our portion. Is that normal? For moms who had PPO, did you have to make 2 different payments?
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I paid my doc bills up front but the hospital after. (Well still paying)
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We didn't have to pay the hospital until later when they mailed us a bill!
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@shopaholic: I think this is what they would LIkE you to do but not what you have to do.
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Yes. We paid a portion of it upfront like a month ahead and the rest later. Apparently a lot of people skip out on paying if they bill them afterwards.
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We pre paid everything, which was not very much, and were never billed for anything later (except cord blood collection and the fee for the private room).
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With ds, I paid the hospital bill, for the basics, upfront, in increments from the beginning of my pregnancy. I still had more bills afterwards, cause he was early...NICU and certain l&d things, like the steroid injections I got for his lungs.
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We haven't had to pay anything, even my OB. Get one bill after delivery for our portion. I am dreading getting all the hospital bills.
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Our hospital didnt require us to prepay but we did since we would get a 20% discount. They actually ended up sending us a check a month after delivery because the insurance ended up paying for more than they thought.
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Ooh! I'll have to check if we get a discount for "pre-paying". Doubtful though - our hospital is nicknamed as a "hotel".
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we did not have to pay anything up front, we ended up getting a bill from the hospital a month after DD was born. I had some insurance headaches because the hospital they did not change DD's name and left it as Female Last Name and I had to conference call the insurance company and hospital because the hospital had our insurance number wrong.
I got the anesthesiologist's bill 4 months after DD was born. I called the hospital 3 times asking for the bill so I could send the insurance check to them. I thought this doctor did not want to get paid LOL
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We paid the doctor up front, but nothing to the hospital until afterwards.
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Nope, we didn't pay any bills until after we had left the hospital. No upfront bills were sent to us.
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@bunnylove08: You had to pay the anesthesiologist? That wasn't covered by your insurance? Oh - they headaches I get thinking about this "non-fun" stuff.
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@shopaholic i think the anesthesiologist was out of network. The bill was over 2k! the insurance company only paid about $900... i sent the check and lets see what the office says.
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From someone that works in this industry let me tell you that you do NOT have to pay upfront.
If you have insurance they don't pay until the services are rendered and legally they can't force you to pay it. Now, they can have policies in place where they choose not to treat you there. But, if you explain to them that you are aware of your rights and that you don't legally have to pay them until after delivery they tend to back down.
It's all just to make sure they get some money out of you because some people blow off medical bills.
My OB tried to do that to me and I told them no. I explained the above. They caved and I've paid nothing up front and I refuse to.Another thought is that they are planning on your whole or the majority of your deductible to apply to your delivery and in turn belong to them...however, if you see any other doctors or go to any other facilities part of that deductible could belong to someone else and then you have to deal with an over payment and that mess.
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our OB's policy is that we have to pay our estimated bill by week 30. we're still several weeks away from that and they haven't mentioned it recently, so we'll see.
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16 comments