Delivery costs?

zazu13

I am trying to plan how much to contribute to our HSA next year to prepare to pay for the hospital costs. I was quoted $14,000 - 17,000 for a vaginal or cesarean twin delivery. Talk about sticker shock! We do have insurance that will kick in after our (high) deductible, but this is going to be more than I expected. Is this about what others paid? We're not a high COL state. I don't even want to think about NICU time or other costs we might incur. Luckily, I think we do have a max out of pocket amount.

Was anyone successful in pre-paying or being pre-billed? We have already met our deductible for this year and have spent enough on IVF, too, that we can take a medical tax deduction so I'm hoping to pay as much on this year as we can.

jocie2581

I don't remember my delivery cost. But I know that I's 17 days in the nicu came to $133,000!! Luckily we have insurance.

chickaboo1974

Yeah I don't remember my delivery costs- but I think after insurance- we met our deductible earlier that year and our out of pocket max.- it came to like $500.  But my boys' NICU bill- 17 days for just feeders/growers- was $150K before insurance- I think we paid $700 of that.

legaleagles

My singleton delivery was just over $15,000 (we paid $200 after insurance). 

LegalLadyBug

I think our total bill for next year will be around $7,000. That's our deductible plus max oop. With DD I think delivery was about $8,000. It was vaginal and we only stayed one night. It ended up being "free" since I had already met my deductible and max oop. I have no idea what retail is on twin delivery at my hospital. All I know is they accept payment plans and my OB does as well...just talked to them today about working one out as I already owe $800 from two visits!

katiebenes

I think DH just added all ours up to a little under 7k. and we had no problems

kari.sandall

I had a vaginal delivery and an emergency c section. My daughter was in the nicu for 4 weeks and my son for 5 weeks. Everything came to around $275,000.

PurpleIris30

I would find out your total oop max and plan on paying that. With nicu times of 4 and 5 weeks, a week in the hospital prior to delivery for me, a life flight helicopter ride to a different hospital and a csection, we're going to be close to $500k (in a relatively low col area, as well, but med costs are high everywhere). You just don't know what unexpected expenses you will have, so budget for your oop max so you are covered.

My hospital bill was about 20k (this was for a whole week though so not sure about just the csection time), my doctor's csection charge was $3500, and the anesthesiologist was another $1000. I also had my local OB bill for care up until delivery.

Edit: our oop max was $4k, but the totals above were the billed amounts to insurance, since insurance coverage will vary.

carrotcake06

We def paid our deductible + oop max which was $350 + $1000, iirc (H took care of everything billing wise).

I had a weekend on the hospital, an emergency c/s under general, and the babies each had 13 day NICU stays. If I had to estimate, I'd say that extravaganza of medical services ran close to $250k.

HOWEVER, medical costs can be negotiable so if you're looking at a lot oop, I'd ask questions.

24karat

My c/s and 4 day hospital stay with my twins came to just under $27,000 (including anesthesia, doctor's charge, etc) before insurance. We didn't have a NICU stay or any huge complications and the $27k figure doesn't include any of my prenatal care (I had a ton given all the complications I developed) or the follow up stuff post partum. Our insurance is 80% till the deductible is met and 90% till OOP is met. Our deductible is $2,000 for the family and OOP max is around $8,000 if I remember right...we definitely hit that this year. 

For comparison purposes, my vaginal delivery with DD (induction @ 40wks for complications, 2 days of labor, 2 day hospital stay) came to $14,000 before insurance. I think we paid about $3,000 OOP.

lwatkins12

I don't think we've received all of the statements from the hospital yet and we are at $33,000 for no NiICU time, 2 nights and no complications. We are in a pretty low COL area. Fortunately, we have great insurance.

xnbride

I don't even want to think about it. It will probably be about 8,000-10,000 AFTER insurance. My other boys cost 3,000-4,500.

KatieGummow

We were quoted about $16k for a C-section for this delievery.  However we have an out of pocket max after we meet our family deductible, so all in all our max cost will be about $6,500 from our January appointments to our April delivery.

zazu13

Thanks for all the experiences and advice. I think our OOP max is less than I thought so we will just plan to pay that. It's a lot, but a drop in the bucket compared to what we spent to get pregnant I am very grateful for insurance and would pay any amount x10 to get these little ladies here.

caden

I don't know anything about pre-billing, but I'm not sure how that would benefit you. HSA contributions are pre-tax so it's not like deducting these expenses on your 2013 taxes would save you anything. Unless you're referring to expenses beyond the HSA contribution max, that you could deduct this year over next. If so that's something I would bring up with your hospital, for sure. I'll answer as if pre-billing isn't an option though. If you have a HSA + HDHP then just contribute the IRS max and roll over any leftover money if your OOP max is less than the contribution max. My very quick/easy vag delivery was about $11K. I hit my high deductible months before giving birth though b/c I had PTL issues and ended up in L&D 5x. My whole pregnancy was about $35K. But even if you had no issues, your bills will be at least $10K. the 2013 IRS max for HSA is $6450 (for a family plan).

BabyCarryingVessel

My insurance paid 100% after $3,500 deductible. The total bill was $40,000 and we had 3 days of NICU, emergency csection with general anesthesia.