does your doctor make you..

palmtreemandy

Pre-pay for labor and delivery charges?

I have a very compliacted health insurance plan as it is.. and with the doc making me prepay the 3 grand for l&d by my 30th week... we're looking at a norm of 5-7 hundred dollars a month in POST INSURANCE costs.

Is this normal for anyone else? I just got the billing plan and I'm feeling so overwhelmed and scared I can hardly hold myself together. This amount is almost the cost of our monthly mortgage, there is no way we can afford that.

I'm considering switching doctors. Which is really scary...

babycooncat

No!! Never heard of that!

KatiKM

I have a billing plan with my doctor that covers his fees for maternity care/delivery/post partum. All in all it is $500 bucks ahead of time, $100 a month. Then the only bill we will get after will be the hospital stay and epidural costs

Celiarh1

my first doc did... I didn't switch because of it I switch cause I moved and she didn't take medicaid. I thought it was ridiculous DH was willing to do it if I wanted to stay but it was too far of a drive and the medicaid issue

serrill2

Yes, I have to as well.  I pay over $750 a month because it doesn't include lab or u/s either.

Nicole731

Yes. They want it paid by the seventh month of pregnancy.

Bethbsn06

I pay the portion of my "package" up front. The package includes all my prenatal appointments, vaginal birth, and one post partum checkup. My co-pay on the package was only $330. insurance picked up the rest. I will then pay the hospital charges after the fact and any complications my OB has to deal with.

LadyHollywood

My doc makes people with no insurance pay up front.

We lucked out.  My doc is in network, but the hospital they are affiliated with that we plan to deliver at is now OUT of network.  They made a special agreement with my doctor that any of their patients would NOT be billed ANYTHING.  Whatever our insurance pays as out of network, that is all.  No further billing.  Love it!

jennifer.jen84

Before we moved I worked in a hospital and when a patient would preregister and they didn't have insurance or they would have a high payment plan we would ask for them to prepay or start to make payments. Then Dr and the hospital wont refuse you if you don't make the payments in full before but this is a policy that they may have to make sure that they get a least a partial payment.

karilbarnes57

We have to pay our 20% coinsurance ahead of time by the 7th month. It included all pre natal appointments, delivery and one check up after that. Ours was only $270, but did not include any lab work that has been done, thats covered under a different copay.

Nennifre

Yes. I have to pay for mine before I deliver the baby. I have a $3000 deductible so I have pay $400 every month. But I have a buydown option that covers 70% up to my deductible and I can't get that until they send me the EOB so I can send the buydown company a copy for reimbursement. So I'm paying out my as* right now. It's annoying, but I don't have another option closer than an hour drive away.

jrlandrigan

I work in a doctors office with OBGYN and this sounds like something we would set up for a patient if they would owe most, if not all of the delivery charges. We bill for all of the routine office visits at the end with the delivery charge. It is not required though. It is only arranged to help the person out after the delivery so they aren't hit with a huge bill they can't pay.

mistywhite400

I had to prepay our part for her services.  We have a 70/30 insurance plan with no yearly deductible & an out of pocket max of $3000. So we ended up paying her her $680 total.  She broke it down into 4 monthly payments.  Now the hospital fee & anathesiologist (Sp?) fee we can make payments on afterwards.  Maybe you haven't met your deductible, and then you have to pay the part that your insurance doesn't cover, so maybe that's why its so high?

Alex17

Nicole731:

Yes. They want it paid by the seventh month of pregnancy.

This.

jdouglas84

I don't have to pre-pay for L/D with my practice.

We have an HSA plan through BC/BS, and we have to meet our $3000 deductible before insurance kicks in and pays 100%. We're halfway there now, hopefully it's not too much longer before insurance kicks in...

PurpleK26

Yes. At our office they call our insurance and find out exactly how much we'll owe. Then they split it in to 6 monthly payments and do an auto withdraw, so that by the time delivery comes around, it's all paid for on the dr. end and we'll only have the hospital bill.

Ours is costing us around 430.00 a month.  

JLG95

I had to pre-pay my $15 co-pay to cover all of my prenatal care, tests, and labor and delivery.  I got a statement of benefits from my insurance company that showed what that co-pay covered.

luckyangel

No and WHOA that's alot of out of pocket costs. 

Our insurance has a $50 copay at the time I am admitted to the hospital for the delivery and everything else including Sean's circumcision is covered by insurance.

Anna&Matt

that's normal for my OB's office. They make you pay by your 7th month I believe.

Mrs_D_in_KY

They would like me to pay my family deductible before I deliver.

But if it's not paid in full, are they really going to make me not deliver the baby when it's ready? Probably not.

mrsmegs06

I only paid him $260 which is what it will cost after insurance covers the rest. 

abo1029

I have a PPO that covers 80% after the $1000 deductible.  Our office put us on a payment plan for which includes $2000 in deductible since our due date is after the new year and it starts over.  We pay about $350 a month not including all of the lab bills, etc.  It's SO stressfull!

wray13

We were in the process of switching insurances when I got pregnant and my insurance company wont pay for the pregnancy.  I freaked out and didn't know what to do.  But....... My husband is of Native American blood and so is my baby, so I get all my prenatal care and delivery @ no cost to us @ the Indian Hospital in Oklahoma.  We really lucked out!! Whew!

ufrealtor

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We have private insurance, since we are self employed, and our drs office policy is that all deductibles are to be paid off before the 30th week, which is very common here. They split into months or you can pay in full. I would much rather pay in advance then have to worry about it afterwards, plus this way we will not owe anything to anyone after the baby is born. I am sure that there are some offices that will allow for a longer payment plan, but I would call around first before switching.

Married2MrWright

Yes.  Fortunately, with our insurance the grand total was $15 which we paid in cash.

That said, my BFF had to make payments of $500/mo. to her doc throughout her pregnancy...and that was WITH insurance.

Leap08

KatiKM:

I have a billing plan with my doctor that covers his fees for maternity care/delivery/post partum. All in all it is $500 bucks ahead of time, $100 a month. Then the only bill we will get after will be the hospital stay and epidural costs

My billing is setup similarly. I had to make two payments for all my midwife's fees - maternity care/labor & delivery/ post partum. My insurance is really good - I only had to pay $358 total. The only other bill we'll get is from the hospital after delivery.  

azarembka

we have a payment plan that has to be paid in full by the 28th week. they took the estimated physician fees for a vaginal delivery and subtracted what the insurance will cover and then what our balance is.  In a way we like it so that after the baby comes we won't be overwhelmed with this as well.

mandi1103

Do you or your hubby or SO have the option of participating in a FSA? If you do you can elect up to $2,500 for medical expences. The day you sign up/ recieve your card is loaded with the entire amount. The money is deducted from your pay check on a PRE TAX basis. Right now I elected $2,000- I pay $84 bi weekly. I save around $200-300 just from it being pretax. My total package was $485.67. I was able to pay it all up fron due to the FSA by my 12th week! Look into it!