- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Adoption
Baby's Hospital Expenses
I'm kind of freaking our right now. I just talked to our agency and the hospital where LO was born has a social worker that believes billing the mother's insurance for his expenses is fraud. The agency is fighting it as this is really the only hospital that has that issue. So my question is have any of you had to pay your child's hospital expenses? I am wondering how much it usually is? I am hoping it is less than $3000 because maybe we could come up with that. I am just praying it is not $10,000.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Baby's Hospital Expenses
I think this might depend on the state/area and if he was born via c-section.
Unfortunately, my costs were near $3,000 and that was OOP for the hospital visit, anesthesia and my doctor's bill (I had a c/s)
Your baby should be on your insurance plan from the time of placement. It's illegal for insurance companies to refuse adopted newborns coverage.
Our insurance paid for most of DD's medical bills from birth (definitely not $10K
and we paid for whatever insurance did not cover out of pocket. I can't remember how much exactly, but I would be very surprised if it was even the $3K you were hoping for.
The baby's time in the hospital should be covered under the birthmother's insurance/medicaid until she is released. After that point, it becomes your expense.
If you do end up owing, remember you can always negotiate a payment plan with the hospital. Nothing says you have to pay it all at once. And as long as you are current on payments, they cannot charge you interest (at least in all of the states I have lived in, that has been the law).
If I were you, I'd threaten legal action against the hospital. You shouldn't have to follow through, but just the threat should make them reconsider their billing decision. The simple fact is that the baby was not your son until after the birth, at the very earliest. You are not responsible for any bills prior to legally adopting him. When were the papers signed?
ETA: This makes me so mad, because clearly the hospital is only billing you because they figure they are more likely to get payment (possibly at a higher rate) than if they bill the birhtmother's insurance/medicaid. That's why I would fight them on it.
I agree with Captain Serious.
Even in my state, where consent is signed before birth, it isn't enforceable until the 5 day window passes post-birth and our hospital had no problem billing medicaid.
The only time I've heard of billing insurance or medicaid being fraudulent is in cases of surrogacy and even then, most private insurances will cover it (but medicaid will not -- and it's a big no no to bill them for a surrogate pregnancy).
Please take a step back from the stress of this situation, and think about what you're planning on doing clearly.
Regardless if the agency has been dealing with the hospital in the past, it is your right to deal with them directly if they are billing you for this, regardless of what they say. Call the hospital billing department yourself, and work your way up the ladder until you get somebody that can help. As pp's have said, you should threaten legal action because they are clearly trying to take advantage of you, because you do not have a clear knowledge of the law.
At the very least, consult an attorney and have them send a cease and desist type of letter (not sure the name of it in a case like this), which should only cost a few hundred, and the hospital will get the point. Please also research the law instead of just taking the crap they are trying to stick with you, and know your rights. Don't cash in your retirement because an ignornant hospital social worker doesn't know the law.
Please stand up for yourself in this situation, because it clearly sounds as if they are taking advantage of you.
This...exactly.
The Billing department at the hospital in Arkansas where my daughter was born tried to get us to write a CHECK for $2500 before my daughter was discharged, and our BM had medicaid. We had incurred additional legal expenses while waiting to finalize and we were incredibly stressed, as we did not have a whole lot of cash left. I was afraid they would not let me leave with the baby! We gave them our insurance info and called our attorney.
Ultimately, our insurance wound up covering her birth, but we received a call a few weeks ago from the hospital and we freaked out! Turns out they only needed proof of my daughter's name being legally changed to our last name, because the hospital submitted the claim under the BM's last name, and these people do billing every day of their work lives! One would think they wold know the laws, but that just goes to show you some people are not always so bright...so don't let them take YOU for a ride!
And just our personal experience recently, when the baby boy was born at the hospital in OK, their billing department tried to tell us that Medicaid would not cover his birth that we were responsible. Not knowing we had already adopted. When we told them that, they said it was b/c of different state law. We told them we would give them our personal information IF Medicaid denied it, they could contact us and we would then give them our insurance information. The doctor who delivered the baby also apparently visited them and told him he didn't know what they were playing, but he had never had an adoption where Medicaid didn't pick up the expense of the baby.
I know you're going to call your attorney today, so I just wanted to give you some encouragement and tell you to stand firm. And while billing folks do this all day everyday, but my experience has been they don't always know what they're doing (I don't know how many claims I've personally had that have been filed wrong, so I don't consider any billing person an "expert.")