Hospital bills - vent

[sarahsas]

I call this a vent but really, I'm laughing hysterically. Thank goodness I have good insurance. I recently got a bill for almost $50,000 (with me owing $500) for my baby's hospital stay after birth (NICU for 5 days). This bill does not count any physician services - haven't gotten that one yet. There was a very brief breakdown of services on there - aka, "IV/Pharmacy - $12,000." Out of curiosity, I called and requested the itemized bill. Here are the things that make me want to laugh and scream at once:

- $54 for a 2 minute lactation consultant visit to show me how to use the pump... and she never came back, and was out of the hospital for 3 days after that, so I never even got a real consult WITH THE BABY (resulting in not being able to BF at all!)
- pacifiers $5 - no wonder they threw every one that dropped on the floor away instead of washing it!!!! WTF!!
- $7 for removing the adhesive that was stuck on him from tape (IV/oxygen being held on)
- $7 per tiny sample sized wipe pack... wow. Should've brought my own!
- $9 for one bottle

And then there are things that seem to be in another language... "SET EXT SM BORE ROT LUER 7IN" - $10. What the??

Make sure to get the itemized bill! I'm not contesting because those things WERE given to me and are mostly covered - but jeez...


/vent

[kershnic]

Ha, yeah, that's pretty special. Healthcare billing in this country is a complete farce.

One of my kid's 10 day NICU stay was $200,000. She was small and they did a billion tests... but she never had any trouble breathing and didn't require any special procedures. Basically she sat in an incubator, suntanned under jaundice lights, and was monitored by the NICU nurses.

[anaps28]

The day I was being discharged they swung by with a bill and asked me if I wanted to pay right there...I was like oh yeah let me just waddle over and find my checkbook. GTFO

[Deleted]

Healthcare is such a racket. My c/s plus DS' 3 day NICU stay (nothing special, I never knew why he was in the NICU in the first place) was something around 50k. LOL forever

DS got a bill for his ~20 min procedure to have his tear ducts unplugged in outpatient surgery. Pre-negotiated cost was something like 7k. After my deductible insurance ended up paying around $1000.

[soozy87]

Yeah, that is crazy! We had a similar stay and a similar bill.

Re pacifiers - on day six of our seven day NICU stay the nurses told us that we could keep the dropped pacifiers instead of tossing them - after we and they had tossed several. We wouldn't have had to buy any if we would have known that!

[caramia]

When I had testing done to see if baby qualified for fetal surgery, the bill was almost $15k- 2 ultrasounds & an MRI. That didn't even include the doctor visits (which were all less than an hour)

[pooh8402]

May 18, 2015 15:25:00 GMT -5 sarahsas said:

I call this a vent but really, I'm laughing hysterically. Thank goodness I have good insurance. I recently got a bill for almost $50,000 (with me owing $500) for my baby's hospital stay after birth (NICU for 5 days). This bill does not count any physician services - haven't gotten that one yet. There was a very brief breakdown of services on there - aka, "IV/Pharmacy - $12,000." Out of curiosity, I called and requested the itemized bill. Here are the things that make me want to laugh and scream at once:

- $54 for a 2 minute lactation consultant visit to show me how to use the pump... and she never came back, and was out of the hospital for 3 days after that, so I never even got a real consult WITH THE BABY (resulting in not being able to BF at all!)
- pacifiers $5 - no wonder they threw every one that dropped on the floor away instead of washing it!!!! WTF!!
- $7 for removing the adhesive that was stuck on him from tape (IV/oxygen being held on)
- $7 per tiny sample sized wipe pack... wow. Should've brought my own!
- $9 for one bottle

And then there are things that seem to be in another language... "SET EXT SM BORE ROT LUER 7IN" - $10. What the??

Make sure to get the itemized bill! I'm not contesting because those things WERE given to me and are mostly covered - but jeez...


/vent

Secondary extension small bore tubing with a luer lock. Aka iv tubing.

And fwiw, I don't toss pacifiers. I tell parents to not use them until they've been boiled, but I let them keep the pacis.

[bcarp30]

May 18, 2015 15:30:57 GMT -5 anaps28 said:

The day I was being discharged they swung by with a bill and asked me if I wanted to pay right there...I was like oh yeah let me just waddle over and find my checkbook. GTFO

My hospital did this to me the day after she was born.  Like not even 24 hours old.  And they sent this male into the room, like I'm sorry but do NOT send an unknown male who is with BILLING into my room!!!  

[linz]

Ok my hospital must be cheap. Twins in the nicu for 26 and 32 days was just under 200k including dr bills (before insurance). I always wanted an itemized bill!

[longtimenopost]

Ha, yeah. My DD was in the NICU for 3 months and we requested 1 month of itemization just because I was curious. The craziest thing I remember was it costing $1,500 A DAY for her to be on the CPAP machine. That wasn't a room charge, nursing, or anything else. Just a machine using air and water, lol. She's a Million Dollar Baby if you look at the hospital bills . Thankfully we have good insurance and secondary Medicaid.

[niq]

Wapo and/or vox. The "amount billed to insurance" amounts are a total farce. Let's all move to Denmark.

In practice, the insurer is like "yeah, labor and delivery, let's call that $X. Okay this many days in the NICU, let's call that $Y, okay there were a couple of things that went wrong in the NICU and baby needed some minor interventions, let's call that $A, $B, $C, $D. So instead of $50,000 we'll pay you $18,000. Close enough?"

And the hospital is like "yeah. close enough."

Or at least that's how I imagine it works.

ETA what I meant to say in the first sentence was that Wapo/Vox have good pieces on how the prices hospitals bill to insurers bear no relationship with reality. It's hilarious and depressing.

[nomad]

Between the time I was in patient before the twins were born and the NICU time we spent 3 months in the hospital. I had million dollar babies and I was a little surprised it wasn't more. My hospital tried to double bill my insurance so I ended up with Itemized bills. It was amazing, first of all how many pages of charges but then how much things like saline cost.

[july]

My OBs office and the surgical center wanted me to prepay for my D&C. I paid the OB office. Never do that. I thought it would save me from having to open bills in the mail later. When it went through insurance for real it was covered 100%. Four months later and I am still waiting on the reimbursement. I think I will call tomorrow.

[stretchad]

What I found funny was my 5 days of hospital bed rest cost more than my c-section and subsequent stay...
DS was in the NICU for a month. 300k. *GULP* Thank god for insurance.

[sent]

Like niq mentioned, the amounts billed mean nothing in comparison to the amounts actually paid.

I work with one (dental) insurance company where I could write the procedure costs $500,000.  They will put $500,000 in the "Billed" column and pay me $20.  It is in my contract that I will get paid $20.  Recently a patient called the office freaking out that he owed $499,980 but we told him to read his EOB again and he calmed down.  I think in many cases like this and most of the examples given above, the "Billed" column has become a farce and it is just there because it makes it more sensationalistic when those headlines come out "HOSPITALS OVERCHARGING INSURANCE COMPANY."  Obviously it's not so simplistic, but just because your hospital wrote $500 for a paci does not mean the insurance company or any person actually paid that.

[potatopie]

I'm dreading moving back to the US because of this.

[jackie011]

May 18, 2015 20:39:33 GMT -5 july said:

My OBs office and the surgical center wanted me to prepay for my D&C. I paid the OB office. Never do that. I thought it would save me from having to open bills in the mail later. When it went through insurance for real it was covered 100%. Four months later and I am still waiting on the reimbursement. I think I will call tomorrow.

In March 2015 I received a reimbursement check for overpayment of my January 2013 D&C!

[july]

May 19, 2015 5:52:15 GMT -5 jackie011 said:

May 18, 2015 20:39:33 GMT -5 july said:

My OBs office and the surgical center wanted me to prepay for my D&C. I paid the OB office. Never do that. I thought it would save me from having to open bills in the mail later. When it went through insurance for real it was covered 100%. Four months later and I am still waiting on the reimbursement. I think I will call tomorrow.

In March 2015 I received a reimbursement check for overpayment of my January 2013 D&C!

Omg. Two years. 

[purplecow0206]

The anesthesiologist for A's ear tubes is OON for us, but the surgical center is honoring the UN network cost. It'll be funny to see what the pre-insurance cost of that will be.

[starburst604]

May 19, 2015 1:01:54 GMT -5 sent said:

Like niq mentioned, the amounts billed mean nothing in comparison to the amounts actually paid.

I work with one (dental) insurance company where I could write the procedure costs $500,000.  They will put $500,000 in the "Billed" column and pay me $20.  It is in my contract that I will get paid $20.  Recently a patient called the office freaking out that he owed $499,980 but we told him to read his EOB again and he calmed down.  I think in many cases like this and most of the examples given above, the "Billed" column has become a farce and it is just there because it makes it more sensationalistic when those headlines come out "HOSPITALS OVERCHARGING INSURANCE COMPANY."  Obviously it's not so simplistic, but just because your hospital wrote $500 for a paci does not mean the insurance company or any person actually paid that.

Yes this. Most claims are billed at the highest amount that SOME insurance company will pay, so if something bills out at $500k, it's because Insurance Co. X will actually pay that, while your insurance will pay $20, and the hospital accepts that due to the contract they have with them. It's the allowable amount, so the balance doesn't get passed on to the patient.

[simpsongal]

Geez, nuts. J's 7 day NICU stay was a total of $31K, which is a lot but seems reasonable compared to your bill.

[starburst604]

May 19, 2015 7:11:39 GMT -5 mr+ms said:

May 19, 2015 6:56:23 GMT -5 starburst604 said:

Yes this. Most claims are billed at the highest amount that SOME insurance company will pay, so if something bills out at $500k, it's because Insurance Co. X will actually pay that, while your insurance will pay $20, and the hospital accepts that due to the contract they have with them. It's the allowable amount, so the balance doesn't get passed on to the patient.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like, what does the service provider gain by billing a completely absurd amount of money?

For a cash paying customer (ie, someone went out of network for whatever reason or the service was not covered under their plan) this is potentially a really, really big problem. At the very least it sucks to pay hundreds for something the provider normally accepts under $100.

Because they potentially capture that ridiculous amount from the insurance company that will actually pay it. In the practice I work for, there is one company that will pay $500 for a particular procedure, while most don't even pay half that. So we bill $500 to all insurers and accept whatever their allowable contracted amount is. It's too much to manually change the billed amount for that code based on who you are billing when there are so many claims going out at once. The patient would never be billed the remainder, but they will see that high amount on their EOB.

I can't speak for all service providers, but for our patients who are paying OOP, the self pay rate is very reasonable. It usually matches up to what Medicare would pay us, which is on the very low end of the scale.

[sent]

May 19, 2015 7:11:39 GMT -5 mr+ms said:

May 19, 2015 6:56:23 GMT -5 starburst604 said:

Yes this. Most claims are billed at the highest amount that SOME insurance company will pay, so if something bills out at $500k, it's because Insurance Co. X will actually pay that, while your insurance will pay $20, and the hospital accepts that due to the contract they have with them. It's the allowable amount, so the balance doesn't get passed on to the patient.

Can someone explain the logic behind this? Like, what does the service provider gain by billing a completely absurd amount of money?

For a cash paying customer (ie, someone went out of network for whatever reason or the service was not covered under their plan) this is potentially a really, really big problem. At the very least it sucks to pay hundreds for something the provider normally accepts under $100.

From the limited understanding I have, the swing between the billed amount and the amount paid by insurance didn't used to vary so much.  But over the last few decades it has gotten ridiculous with both parties acting ridiculously - the hospitals and the insurance companies.  And in between the consumers have no freaking clue what is going on or how much anything actually costs.  We all know your regular pacis don't cost $500.  But, a special custom made paci for a baby with a particular feeding problem or something might actually cost $500 so let's set our price for pacis at $500 across the board and go from there.  Again, very simplistic example but stuff like this contributes to the ridiculousness.

[atarianna]

May 18, 2015 16:48:09 GMT -5 @starry said:

I remember getting charged $5k for J's "room and board." She stayed in my room and ate from my body. Seemed excessive.

SO MUCH THIS! I was angry with the charges for the baby when the only time in the nursery was the required pedi eval.

[Deleted]

They made this HUGE deal about having to give a credit card upon check in if Dad wanted to eat meals. Like ZOMG we will try to bill your insurance for a $7 pacifier but don't you dare try to have shitty lasagna for your birth partner without paying up front. LOL

[sarahsas]

pooh8402 I need to hire you to come translate this! Ha!

The whole healthcare thing is such a racket! I can't wait to see MY bill since I actually know what they did to me.

The biggest charges for my baby were of course, the room, but also "IV therapy." It cost a couple thousand a day1

[pooh8402]

yes, it is all a racket. I'm reading a book right now, written by a former colleague. the whole premise is about transparency in healthcare, especially as regards to costs and billing. it's quite fascinating and an easy read.

[isabel]

Lol I don't want to see the itemized bill. All said and done, almost $35k was billed for my labor, delivery, and hospital stay. I owe $1,200 and have met my OOP max for the year. I'm currently trying to think of various doctors I should visit and things I want to do that would qualify.

[Alyssa]

Yeah I don't get hospital billing. Both of my kids had almost identical births with zero complications. We stayed one day less in the hospital with my second child and his bill was way more than my daughter's.

[Elsa]

May 19, 2015 17:52:35 GMT -5 isabel said:

Lol I don't want to see the itemized bill. All said and done, almost $35k was billed for my labor, delivery, and hospital stay. I owe $1,200 and have met my OOP max for the year. I'm currently trying to think of various doctors I should visit and things I want to do that would qualify.

Lol I met my OOP max in February. I'm going to go to the derm soon and get all my moles lasered off. FO FREEEEEEEEE

Lol