Cost of hospital stay/delivery charges in south metro
JKH2010
member
My DH and I are still toying with the idea of TTC. I really want to set up a great budget and e-fund before that happens. One thing on my list of things to learn about is the cost of medical bills associated with delivery and the hospital stay. My prenatal and well-baby care (doctor's visits, etc) is covered 100% by my insurance, so I'm really only concerned about what kind of a bill we will be looking at for our actual hospital stay. I seriously know NOTHING about this--are we looking at $5000 or $10000? I am considering getting a supplemental insurance plan (hospital indemnity) through AFLAC since I don't get disabilty insurance (and it's not an option) at my job. I'm hoping that will help us too.
I live in the Inver Grove Heights/Woodbury/Hastings area.
Re: Cost of hospital stay/delivery charges in south metro
It is really hard to say how much you will have to pay out of pocket. It really depends on what your insurance covers and how your birth goes.
I have fairly decent insurance. My prenatal visits and Ellie's well baby visits are 100% covered. I have 3 bills from her birth; 1 for my doctor's office(delivery physician fee), 1 for the hospital (facility usage) and 1 for the anesthesiologist (epidural). They totaled to about $2,700 out of pocket. This was for an uneventful induction, delivery and epidural.
I would really look into a short term disability plan. I wish I would have got one when started trying. DH went on unemployment right before I got pregnant and that extra money would have been nice.
Also, check into what it will cost to add your child to your insurance plan. To add my DD to my plan was $300/month. I almost keeled over.
Good luck with your journey!
my read shelf:
This - it's would be difficult to predict what you're going to have to pay. Some people are covered 100%, some 80/20...it just depends on the type of coverage you have.
As for the total costs, that will also depend on the type of delivery you have. Vaginal vs. c-section, how many days you're in the hospital, if you use and anesthesiologist. And that would be just for your stay.
Once the baby is born, they get their own set of bills. Hospital stay, blood tests, pediatrician visit, etc. to factor in.
I would check with your insurance company and see what percentage they pay for maternity/delivery costs.
GL!
I agree that so much depends on where you deliver, how you deliver and what your insurance is like.
I delivered at Woodwinds, with a HealthEast midwife, had no epidural, got to the hospital Wednesday after 5:00 pm (I was in transition when I arrived, so I wasn't exactly paying attention to the precise time, lol) and left Friday morning.
I was really surprised how inexpensive everything was. With the insurance discount the total bill was only a couple thousand dollars (I want to say around 3k) - I expected more. I only had to pay a couple hundred of it.
A Little Bird and a Monkey Butt
I would definitely recommend getting the Aflac plan. I have several friends who have done that. I had signed up for it when we started trying but then cancelled it after a few months because I was being cheap and thought we would maybe stop ttc for a few months because I had just started a new job and then I got pregnant
I think I would have gotten around $2k if I would have kept the plan and it was only around $40-50/month for the plan. FYI- once it's documented by a medical professional that you are pregnant you can't sign up for the coverage.
I delivered at St. John's and used a midwife, had an epidural, and was there Wednesday night through Saturday morning. I believe our bill was around $11,000. We had good insurance so I think we just paid a hospital deductible of $250 for everything including prenatal visits.
Photo taken at 16 months old
Confirm if AFLAC will let you get a policy before TTC. It's likely they have a huge wait time before they'd cover a pregnancy since insurance is all about numbers and they aren't going to pay you more than you pay them if they can help it.
I've spent more than 20 hours with insurance companies on many health care dramas. You need to call the back of your insurance card, hopefully get a super nice insurance agent, and find out the averages of costs. They may be fairly nitpicky, Sooooo if you know where you are going to deliver, the first thing you want to do is call the billing office, ask for the medical coder department, tell them you're wanting to be uber prepared and could they please give you every medical code for average deliveries:
epidural cost
anesthesiology costs
hospital stay for mom
nursery stay for baby (you should avoid this but it may be necesary...a friend had her baby in there for 1 HOUR and it cost $1,500!!!)
vaginal dr bill
c-section dr bill plus codes for the OR and anesthesiologist
All that said, a baby generally costs 10-12K. But that has nothing to do with what you'll pay. That's where your insurance company tell you about YOUR exact plan, deductibles, etc. If you or baby have any issues, it could be 30K to much much more.
My experience was a bit out of the ordinary because I have twins, who were born early and had to stay in the NICU, and I was on hospital (at Fairview Southdale) bedrest for 2 weeks prior to delivery. All told, our insurance was billed about $250,000, but our insurance plan has an out of pocket max of $4000, so this is all we have had to pay.
Absolutely get the Hospital Indemnity Plan though AFLAC. This really saved out butts! When I was admitted to the hospital we accumulated a benefit of $1000, then for the first 5 days I was in the hospital, we accumulated $500/day, then $100/day after that. When the babies were born, we also got $1000 for each baby and $100/day for each baby as well. This more than covered out out of pocket maximum with our insurance with some extra too. It's a really great plan, and I'm so happy we got it.
BFP #2 10/13/2009 on our 2nd Wedding Anniversary
Discovered TWINS during the 6w u/s - what a shocker!
Delivered on 5/19/2010 at 34 weeks due to pre-e and HELLP syndrome
The Bump MoM Recipe Collection
It's hard to say, like other ladies have already mentioned.
You do seem to have a rather good insurance. But it would depend on what your out of pocked max or deductable is.
My out of pocked max is $3000. But it would be $3000 for me and then $3000 for the baby. But no matter what needs to be done and how high the bill is, I will never have to pay more than that... "only $6000!!"
It sure is expensive but I guess this AFLAC deal is worth looking into. I will do the same!
Good luck to all!
I am delivering at St. John's in December...how was your stay? Did you enjoy the hospital?
Jenny
Photo taken at 16 months old
Make sure this is correct...as a PP poster mentioned, Insurance companies like to screw you...my OOP max was 2,500 but that was for ME, not for ME and the BABY...the two of us were a 5,000 OOP max. I still only ended up paying about $2,700 for everthing, but I had a pretty straightforward delivery and was only in the hospital for a day.
As far as calculations go as well, you have to pay your deductible so whether that's $250, $500, or $1,000 you'll automatically have to pay that out of pocket, then everything gets applied to your coverage level whether that be 80/20 or what not...
You'll also want to take into consideration that you'll pay the deductible for you when you present at the hospital and are in labor...if you have a boy and have him circumsized then you'll have to meet his deductible as well...
It's all a learning process one that you truly can't understand until you go through it...and the only REAL piece of advice I can give is to NOT look at the first bill you get. The hospital will bill you before you're even discharged and that was a frightening bill to see!!!
Are you saying that you had to pay your deductible while you were actually at the hospital in labor? Seriously?
I didn't have to do that. I didn't pay a cent for prenatal care (minus an out-of-network ultrasound) or delivery until after the final insurance claim had been processed by my insurance company.
A Little Bird and a Monkey Butt
I have pretty standard insurance and ended up paying about 2000 out of pocket for the both of us (standard vaginal birth).
Couple pieces of advice-
I would actually calculate the AFLAC benefit out (how much they will actually pay you for the plan you'll be getting) for STD. I used to sell insurance and many people paid as much as they got in benefit (but had more hastle than if they just saved).
Also, if your company has a medical reimbursement account take advantage of that. Put aside a conservative amount, but after the baby is born you usually have 30 days to change benefits due to a "life change" I was able to determine what I would owe based on my actual bills (posted to ins co website within days) and increase the amount in my medical reimbursement account so that all the money I paid out of pocket was tax free. Granted, I will have some really small paychecks for a while, but it will be worth it to save that twenty some percent in taxes.
Good luck!
This is great advice (imho)! I wish more HR people would make new moms aware that they can pay for delivery charges with pre-tax dollars, even if they hadn't previously elected this option. If your workplace has this as a benefit, definitely take advantage of it!
A Little Bird and a Monkey Butt
My first bill was ridiculous! I called to set up a payment plan and the lady told me "Oh, that isn't your bill. That is just an idea of what your bill might be". I still don't understand why they waste the time, paper and postage. What if I actually paid the bill in full? Would they have reimbursed me? The actual bill was much easier to swallow.
my read shelf:
I delivered at United in St. Paul a little over a month ago, and just got the bill for me and my stay a few days ago. I am still waiting for the bill for the baby. Here is how it has panned out so far (keep in mind that I do not have to pay for all of this, my total was $900 and that is coming from a pre-tax HSA.):
My water broke on Sunday morning and I was discharged on Wednesday afternoon. I had Group-B Strep, so I needed antibiotics. And, I had to be induced. They also inserted a harmless internal fetal monitor while I was in labor, but they had to try with 4 different wands before they got it in. Here is what I had to pay for:
4 days in hospital
Pitocin
Internal monitors (all 4)
Penicillin
IV fluid
Epidural
Physician fee
Stitches
Also, my insurance covered a Physician prescribed breast pump.
The grand total (not including any of the baby's expenses): $25,698.50
I delivered at Abbott. All my prenatal stuff was covered 100%. I was in the hospital from Saturday afternoon and had her sunday morning by c-section and left thursday. We had a bill from the doctor which was about 1000, we had the anesthesia bill which was about 400 and then the hospital bill was about 800. Then we also had special care for her which was about another 300.
So with that said, just depends on what happens and how you deliver. You can't really prepare for it because so many things happen unexpectedly.
Good luck!