Hospital Neonatologist Not In Insurance Network

theprincessPAT

So we've started getting the bills in for the NICU stay and we noticed that w ewere getting billed for things that were out of network.  I saw the bills on the insurance website, too.  The neonatologist was considered out of network, but worked at the hospital so we did not have a choice in who her doctor was.  I have really good insurance and so these bills were completely unexpected.  We thought we'd have to pay the deductable and that would be it.

Well, my husband called yesterday.  Turns out the hospital billing made a big mistake (well, big to us) and it should not have been billed as out of network since the hospital is considered in network.  The billing woman was going to appeal on our behalf and work towards fixing the problem.

The moral of this situation is to make sure all the charges are correct and what you "expected" (I'm sure none of us expected to have tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills).  Call the hospital if you think something is wrong and call the insurance if you think something is wrong, because it probably is.  I know hospital bills really are the last thing any preemie parent wants to deal with so I hope you all get billed correctly the first time.

meldoo2002

Tell me about it.  We had the SAME problem., but I had to write appeal after appeal about how I could not take my boys out of the hospital to see other area neonatologists while they were in the NICU.  Ridiculous.  Took me a year to get those bills paid.

mrsbnlmel

Such a good point! We had this same situation too. It is the LAST thing you want to deal with when you have a new baby at home!

OscarQ

Amen!  I got bills this past week for Kevin under my insurance when he should be under my husband's insurance.  I have 90% hospitalization coverage, my husband has 100% coverage - on an anticipated $1mm hospital stay that adds up.  We're working through it now but the doctor's office is trying to say the baby is billed under the Mother's insurance for the first 30 days of life - uhm, no way!  We paid for insurance for him beginning day 1 and we are going to fight to have it covered that way.