Cost of having a baby

[Stingyshark]

Prior to have a baby I always wondered how much it would actually cost... Well, my claims have started to roll in to my insurance. There are at least one, maybe two claims still missing. 

There is the MRI, which will probably be between $200-$300 (my portion) & the claim from my OB, which I HOPE is already paid for since I paid them $600 prior to delivery. 

SO, my total (so far) is $4900... ouch. 

$2000 of that is deductibles for me & Paisley (1k/ea). Then we have an 80/20 plan. 

Oh, there is another claim that is outstanding; the hospital billed it wrong - as in, they put MH as the patient.. UHM, pretty sure he did not have his placenta sent to pathology. OY. Billing problems make me ragey.. The hospital better figure it out before I have to call up there and tell someone how to do their job. 


ETA: total billed so far is $43,964    (one of the claims is from when I had monitoring done at 36 weeks, i'm counting it, it's $714 for a damn ultrasound).

[bowies]

Holy Jesus. I paid roughly $600 to my OB upfront too, so hopefully that part is covered. I think I'll have to pay about $200 for the NT scan tomorrow. I'm curious about the hospital stay itself - I was inpatient for 4 days about a year ago (not baby related) and paid a grand total of $43. Something tells me this will be drastically different.

[disappointedkittens]

It costs $700 for an ultrasound?
Wow that's unreal. I've never really thought of the costs of having a baby before but that is brutal!
Glad you ladies have some insurance coverage.

[catsarecute]

I am so thankful for my insurance. Inpatient care and delivery is no charge. All of my prenatal visits are no charge. There is a $15 co-pay for a NST. The baby will be on DH's insurance so I need to review that to see what it covers for her. Hopefully she won't need any serious care after being born. Come to think about it, I'm not even sure how that works-does that go on my insurance or her's?

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 11:34:38 GMT -5 disappointedkittens said:

It costs $700 for an ultrasound?
Wow that's unreal. I've never really thought of the costs of having a baby before but that is brutal!
Glad you ladies have some insurance coverage.

Well, I just looked at the actual explanation of benefits. It was $376 for the ultrasound and $603 to sit in the monitoring room for 10 min. My deductible was met with the ultrasound, so I only ended up having to pay $338 of that $603 (lucky me). 

But, if I had an ultrasound done at an outpatient facility, it would have been about $114.. It is ALWAYS more expensive to go to the hospital, for anything. 


The actual hospital bill for me, which I'm not sure what all it entails yet, but I'm assuming its the room charges, and all the prenatal-postpartum care, plus at least $800 for motrin (lol)... was $28k   --- My insurance allowed about 10k, 2k of which I have to pay. That is after my deductible, so that is my 20%..

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 11:37:09 GMT -5 catsarecute said:

I am so thankful for my insurance. Inpatient care and delivery is no charge. All of my prenatal visits are no charge. There is a $15 co-pay for a NST. The baby will be on DH's insurance so I need to review that to see what it covers for her. Hopefully she won't need any serious care after being born. Come to think about it, I'm not even sure how that works-does that go on my insurance or her's?

For me, she had her own benefits as soon as she was born. You should call your insurance, or your DH's insurance to find out what you need to do in regards to her benefits. 

[bowies]

Do you know how much the epidural cost? (Forgive me if you went au naturale - it's hard for me to keep up!)

[chicago]

Jan 7, 2014 11:37:09 GMT -5 catsarecute said:

I am so thankful for my insurance. Inpatient care and delivery is no charge. All of my prenatal visits are no charge. There is a $15 co-pay for a NST. The baby will be on DH's insurance so I need to review that to see what it covers for her. Hopefully she won't need any serious care after being born. Come to think about it, I'm not even sure how that works-does that go on my insurance or her's?

We are putting the baby on my H's insurance too. They told us just to make sure we let the hospital know when we check in that I will be separate from her with regard to policies. Any care for her once she's born goes on his insurance. Just make sure the hospital where you will deliver is covered for both policies!

I know my insurance company said we had thirty days to add her to one or the other once she is born, but I figure it's easier just to tell them upfront to avoid a million calls after the fact, especially since I'm PPO, he's HMO, and we use two different providers. The less I have to talk to insurance, the better!

[disappointedkittens]

Stingyshark - ok well that is a little better if the out of hospital ones are around $100. I'm heading into my 4th ultrasound this week and was just thinking holy cow... There is enough to stress about while pregnant without worrying about healthcare costs.

On a side note do you spend all your time touching Paisley's hair? It looks so soft and sweet.

[Deleted]

At least you had the baby in one calendar year. I met my deductible for the first time last year and now I'm sad that it just started all over again. Babies are expensive!

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 11:54:30 GMT -5 disappointedkittens said:

Stingyshark - ok well that is a little better if the out of hospital ones are around $100. I'm heading into my 4th ultrasound this week and was just thinking holy cow... There is enough to stress about while pregnant without worrying about healthcare costs.

On a side note do you spend all your time touching Paisley's hair? It looks so soft and sweet.

LOL, we do spend a ridiculous amount of time petting her hair. HA. It is really soft... I hope hope hope it doesn't fall out! 

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 11:58:57 GMT -5 @missy1 said:

At least you had the baby in one calendar year. I met my deductible for the first time last year and now I'm sad that it just started all over again. Babies are expensive!

I spent a lot of time crossing my fingers she would be born in 2013. I hadn't met my deductible until I had to go for monitoring, but after that I walked around with my fingers crossed that she would come in 2013.. I really hoped she wouldn't show up on Dec 31 and have us in the hospital in 2013 AND 2014. That would have been really ridiculous. AND yay for that tax deduction.

[rbp]

Jan 7, 2014 11:42:18 GMT -5 MNH2013 said:

I was just talking about this with a girl at work!

We got extremely lucky on H's insurance and will pay $0 for everything baby/birthing related. If I had stayed on my companies insurance it would have cost me $4000 plus whatever for the baby. The panorama test we did to find out the sex and other things billed my insurance for like $10000, that almost gave me a heart attack when I saw that. We ended up paying $20 or $25 for that test.

Ten thousand dollars? Eesh. I need to call my insurance company. 

[sunshine608]

Ouch. I knew it was expensive but I had no idea how much until I had a $34K surgery a few years ago. Since then I've been on an HMO plan and was crossing my fingers that my job didn't get rid of the HMO option for 2014. I realized a few years ago that the HMO option is the best for having a baby (in my area). We have it through BCBS and it basically meant one co-pay at the OB ($25) for all visits and one at the hospital for the delivery ( $200). What I didn't anticipate was the MFM which is still costing me $25/(35 for 2014), each monthly visit. I'll still take that over some other options.

My bill just for the 18 week MFM visit totaled 2K. That included an u/s and the b/w for second part of the genetic screening.

[narockshard]

We have a high deductible plan so as far as I know our max out of pocket will be $5k, but our deductible is $3k so I'm guessing we'll at least be paying that much. Thankfully my husband's employer contributes $2k the beginning of each year to employee HSAs. And we've also been saving for years into the HSA and not using any of the money, so we have a nice cushion that should carry us into the years to come and we should ideally never be short of funds in the account. It sucks having to use all that money but nice to know it's separate from everything else and we're more than adequately covered.

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 11:49:04 GMT -5 bowies said:

Do you know how much the epidural cost? (Forgive me if you went au naturale - it's hard for me to keep up!)

2kish - I will pay $210.

[vmars]

That's insane....my co pays are only $15 and I think I've paid out of pocket $45 this entire pregnancy plus classes which were $140 (originally $190 - I was reimbursed $50).

[winemaker06]

Jan 7, 2014 12:27:39 GMT -5 sunshine608 said:

Ouch. I knew it was expensive but I had no idea how much until I had a $34K surgery a few years ago. Since then I've been on an HMO plan and was crossing my fingers that my job didn't get rid of the HMO option for 2014. I realized a few years ago that the HMO option is the best for having a baby (in my area). We have it through BCBS and it basically meant one co-pay at the OB ($25) for all visits and one at the hospital for the delivery ( $200). What I didn't anticipate was the MFM which is still costing me $25/(35 for 2014), each monthly visit. I'll still take that over some other options.

My bill just for the 18 week MFM visit totaled 2K. That included an u/s and the b/w for second part of the genetic screening.

This is the route I took, and coverage is almost the same. I paid $200 to cover all visits and will pay $300 for the delivery and hospital stay.
The MFM does cost $20/visit if they code it a certain way, which they have only done once.

Stuff like this makes me wonder why people hate HMOs so much. I don't need referrals and see all the same BCBS doctors without the 80/20 coinsurance crap to worry about. Glad to see I'm not alone! I know a lot of people pay for the PPO plans (if they have the choice) thinking that more expensive = better coverage or something.

[Jalapeñomel]

Ours was $100 for me $100 for D, and that includes all prenatal care. I also have an HMO.

The bills however looked like this:

Me: $27k
D (NICU for 9 days): $112k

[Stingyshark]

We are on the "HMO" option of our insurance, it's an EPO. This is the least expensive option for us.

The PPO has better benefits but it's 3x as much per month and the benefits are only slightly better.

[kershnic]

Between IVF and twin pregnancy my doctors billed my insurance about 32k in 2013, and my insurance paid about 14k. That's about half prenatal care I'd guess. Bloodwork and medication are all above and beyond that. And I'm only 27 weeks pregnant....still a lot to go!

For prenatal care I've paid about $60 OOP. I will have to pay $500 for being hospitalized at birth, and another $500 per baby if they end up in the NICU. It seems likely that I'll also end up at the ER at some point which will be $150. But when I have an MFM u/s every two weeks (billed at $1600!!) that is fully covered I can't complain too much I guess.

[pinotgrig]

Yikes, some of these numbers are scary!!

We're very lucky that our insurance covers 100% after a $100 deductible. We'll pay that at our 16/17 week appt on Thursday and will be done. We did have to pay a $40 copay for about 4 visits before I was officially considered an ob patient at my doc's office (at my 12/13 week appt).

[sent]

I have no idea yet. Bills show up every now and then.  Some thing are in-network, some are out-of-network or not covered.  I got some paperwork from the baby's neonatology group and called to find out if they are in-network. Turns out they are out-of-network for all insurances except Medicaid. I nearly fell off the couch when she said that - I am used to offices saying "We accept all insurances EXCEPT Medicaid."  Then she told me they will bill her stay as an emergency because I had no time or choice to look for an in-network doctor when she was born seeing as she was premature. I'm guessing this is a game the neonatologist's group plays with the insurance companies to get them to pay more than if they were in-network.

So far I know we owe $750 for my hospital stay.  This I knew ahead of time.

Then some checks showed up. If I didn't work in healthcare, I might have thought that was a refund for something. I see this a lot in our industry - patients get checks from the insurance company and think "free money!" But I know those checks are to be applied to out-of-network payments for some out-of-network test or monitor, but for which one - it doesn't say!

ETA - Hooray for my unexpected tax deduction?  She wasn't due for another 3 weeks!

[Stingyshark]

Jan 7, 2014 21:09:55 GMT -5 sent said:

I have no idea yet. Bills show up every now and then.  Some thing are in-network, some are out-of-network or not covered.  I got some paperwork from the baby's neonatology group and called to find out if they are in-network. Turns out they are out-of-network for all insurances except Medicaid. I nearly fell off the couch when she said that - I am used to offices saying "We accept all insurances EXCEPT Medicaid."  Then she told me they will bill her stay as an emergency because I had no time or choice to look for an in-network doctor when she was born seeing as she was premature. I'm guessing this is a game the neonatologist's group plays with the insurance companies to get them to pay more than if they were in-network.

So far I know we owe $750 for my hospital stay.  This I knew ahead of time.

Then some checks showed up. If I didn't work in healthcare, I might have thought that was a refund for something. I see this a lot in our industry - patients get checks from the insurance company and think "free money!" But I know those checks are to be applied to out-of-network payments for some out-of-network test or monitor, but for which one - it doesn't say!

I hate it when the insurance sends the patient the check. The chances that I'll see that payment are slim to none. Only certain insurances do it, so annoying.

[Stingyshark]

Jan 8, 2014 6:36:01 GMT -5 bricco said:

I'm really fortunate that my insurance covers my hospital at 100%. Labs and anesthesia fees will be billed separately, I think, but the actual in-patient hospital bill will be covered.

Our insurance is really pretty good, with our premium portion being only like $40/month each (we both work for the same employer).

...however, adding Little Monkey to our insurance will increase our premium by almost $400/month. We're looking into other options for his insurance.

Ouch! That is crazy! 

[speyedr]

I'm paying $1700 OOP to my OB for all prenatal care and delivery fees, will have to meet a $1200 deductible this year for me and baby plus 20% co insurance for all hospital fees for both of us. I don't even want to know what the final OOP is going to be, luckily we have a flex spending account to cover a lot of this.

[bananapancakes]

Holy crap! Never before have I been more grateful to live in Canada.