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Preemies
2 million Dollar Babies
Thank goodness for healthcare. The girls are on disability due to low birth weight so I have not seen a bill but I went and looked up there billing information today and added it up. Ella's 111 NICU stay was 1.4 million dollars and some change and Sophia's 77 (just feeder and grower) was over 500,000. So in the 4 months my girls have been alive they have racked up 2 million dollars with of hospital bills of which I will not pay a penny out of pocket. When we transfered hospitals at 6 weeks, the girls rode in the same ambulance and really had a 5 minute ride down the street and it cost 5000 per child. Ella had to get a new "glow light" for fer pulse ox monitor yesterday, the invoice said it was $180. Anybody else have ridiculus hospital bills and get charged a ridiculus amount for mundane things?
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Re: 2 million Dollar Babies
Our bill wasn't nearly that high, but luckily we hit our out-of-pocket max before birth as well. Our 6-day stay for LO was around $32k (I think)
It's amazing, isn't it. I used to do hospital billing and 10 stinkin years ago I saw charges of $6 for the travel-sized toothpaste they give you in your room. When LO was hospitalized at 6m for NOTHING (long story) they charged $12 for 6ml of OTC gas drops.
1998 Ovarian Cancer Survivor. 7 Miscarriages: 6w, 13w2d, 4w2d, 7w4d (DD's twin), 5w. Failed Tubal after c/s (!!): 5w2d, 6w4d
People without insurance get the tax payers to pay for it!
I and the babies were hospitalized in a country with socialized medicine, but our insurance is BCBS (long story).
Some interesting numbers:
DS's 300 day stay - $196,000 before government subsidy
- $69,000 after government subsidy --> BCBS paid $62,000.
My 10 weeks on hospital bedrest cost $15,000.
My C-section cost $1200.
IMO BCBS made out like bandits. If my pprom had happened in the US, I think they would have to pay out a couple mil.
I know! But I think we're a little to naive about the costs. We should see an invoice, just so we know what's going on - otherwise people take it for granted.
I know this is meant to be funny, but friends had to file chapter 7 after their child was born prematurely, so people without insurance, or enough insurance can be ruined when something catastrophic like a preterm delivery happens. They both worked and are taxpayers too,. It hit a nerve to me I guess.
On another note, our hospital billed for a circumsision for Gwen... Good thing I looked at the itemized bill....
90k for a 15 min helicopter ride, $40 for a tube of generic desitin, $100 for a breast pump pack that was never even used (they wouldn't allow me to rent one since I was out of county), 250k for her 17 day NICU stay, $50 for a pulsox, $75 for a blood pressure cuff.
Yeah, they charge out the whazzo. Thank GOD for insurance we only paid $250 for the actual stay but had to fork out $20k for her helicopter ride since our insurance didn't cover it.
Pft, I wish! My insurance didn't cover part of her bill and we ended up having to pay $20k for it! That would bankrupt some people.
Totally agree! I'm very thankful for what we have and if we saw an invoice I think it would make you even more grateful.
our 108 day NICU stay was almost 1.2 million, that didn't include my week in the L&D ICU. Some of the charges do seem a little extreme. We had a transpotation fee that was almost $1000. The hospital I was in was literally connected to the childrens hospital so her transportation was really wheeling her incubator down a corridor to the connecting NICU hallway. We had to sign a transportation wavier and everything like you do with an ambulance "incase of an accident".
what does continue is many of the bills from the premature birth...opthamology, pt, ot, st, special formulas, specialists outside the pediatrician, NICU followup, any special equipment and that goes on for years. My DD had ROP and her eyecare really isn't covered and since she needs mega correction her kind of lenses arnt covered either.
OK... now I fell like the hugest whiner...I have her, the other 3 families that had 24 weekers like me (she had a 1 in 4 chance of survival at birth) have to go to the graveyard to be with their child. Many them have mega expensive stays too but no baby.