Paying cash for the hospital bill?

karen799

I just recently found out i'm pregnant and we will be having to pay cash for all of the prenatal care and birthing.  Has anyone ever done this?  We're trying to get an idea of how much it will actually cost.  Also I know the Hutzel Women's Hospital at the DMC has midwives.  Does anyone know if it is more cost effective to go with a midwife vs. a doctor?

KBabySmiles

You can usually call the hospital to get a better idea of cost specifics. A vaginal delivery usually runs between 10-15k and a csection can be 20-30k. There is a huge range.

I am not sure that going with midwives would be any different cost wise than a doctor. This is an important time in your life and you don't want to be choosing care options just based on cost.  Go with what practice you are most comfortable.

bll530

The hospital most likely offers payment plans. I gave birth at Royal Oak Beaumont and they're allowing me to pay about $100/month on my outstanding balance, with no interest. I had two separate bills, one for me and one for DD and I set up two separate payment plans. On the one they asked me what I wanted to pay and the other they gave me the amount.

klreese0213

i was in the same boat as you. i'm self employed, therefore did not have insurance. It really worried me not having insurance so i exhausted many optioned and finally went with a private insurance company. I started out at DHS trying to get medicaid. Have you tried that option yet? Even if you are employed and over their limit they do offer some help. however, the quote they gave me was more then what a private insurance would have cost me. 

my situation is this- i pay $265/month for the insurance, ontop of the deductible which i may an extra $230/month through my Dr's office towards the deductible. once it's paid however, i don't have copays for prenatal- BUT by then i wont need prenatal because they baby will be here. but in the long run my prescriptions are cheaper and i will not have hospital bills after the baby since my deductible will be paid by time LO comes (or if i own anything, it'll be considerably less then 20k). by time LO comes i will have paid about $2500 for the insurance (by end of  Nov).

However, if i were have not gotten private insurance, i would have to pay for each dr visit UP FRONT. at my location they don't allow you to see the Dr until you paid before the visit. (i'm assuming many locations are like this with none insured patients). you have to also consider things like the Ultra Sound which i believe is fairly expensive as well (thankfully my insurance kicked in by then). However the nice thing, in the long run is that i would have saved a lot of that $2500, and be able to prepare better for LO and just made payments towards the hospital bills.

There's obviously there's pro's and con's to each situation.

my biggest suggestion would be to go to DHS and see if they can help you at all. and go from there. 

good luck.

jcole32444

Wow. My c-section was only around 20 thousand. Once you pick an ob or midwife they may be able to help you estamate the cost of your bill. My ob showed me the average for the different types of births.