How much does it cost to grow a baby in the NICU?

GatorNurse · April 2012

About $420,000. Bills & explanation of benefits are rolling in. 70 days in the NICU & worth every dang cent! Oh, & $57,000 for my two week stay including my section. Crazy!

Mrs. Alice · April 2012

Mind baffling huh? Our family total insurance claims for 2011 was over $2.4 mill. Not sure what was actually paid out and what not, but that is a terrifying number to think about! My insurance is still hashing is out with Medicaid and it's been over 6 months since they came home.

faeriequeeneonwow · April 2012

82 days for DD and a week total between two hospitals including transfer by ambulance and c/s ended up being just shy of $700,000 for us. We only had $800 come out of pocket and that was almost entirely the ambulance transfer since I crossed state lines. ETA: DD was discharged the end of Dec. and it took until May for insurance to get done processing everything - every time they readjusted the claim we got a ton of paperwork to notify us, but it was worth all the hassle in the end.

pinksandbermuda · April 2012

That is totally mind boggling. My bills have just started to come in, I'm afraid to see what they come to!

americana · April 2012

Wow! You're right, it's worth it of course, but it feels like they just like kicking you when you're down. I'm incredibly thankful we have insurance and an out of pocket max of $7000.

We only had 9 days in the NICU and the charge just for the stay was $30,000, that doesn't include charges for the neonatologists (all of which were "out of network" even though the hospital was "in network" weird). Our girls were born in 2010 and I got a bill for their NICU as recently THIS January for $400. Insane. It never ends.

HarmsMomma · April 2012

Crazy isn't it?

We were "lucky" and only had 2 days in NICU and 2 days in special care but still had $480,000 for the total. Tongue Tied Thank goodness for insurance!

jcsntms06 · April 2012

I haven't gotten C's NICU bill yet, but my bill was fairly cheap this time around (doctors didn't do much seeing that I labored at home for two days and came into the hospital, in hopes that they would stop my labor.) My bill was $3700.

kelkel09 · April 2012

My month hospital stay was 200k

Avery's 70 day stay was 616k

Ethan's 166 day NICU stay was over 1 million

Ethan's 4 surgery's, ambulance transfer to rehab, and so far 2 month rehab hospital stay haven't been billed yet.

We have been extremely lucky and so far our insurance covered almost everything....we've only had to pay $900 out of pocket.

sweetsugarmama · April 2012

so far we only got a letter that says the drs caring for your babies are out of network for your insurance. since we had private insurance we had no maternity coverage I know I'm going to pay for some things but the c-section is supposed to be covered. I'm anxious to see what our crappy insurance will do. I wonder if they consider the hospital stay part of the c-sec or part of maternity. And the who knows how long we'll be in the nicu? I have a feeling it will be quite a long time before any bills are settled.

cookiemonster03 · April 2012

Our DDs 17 day NICU stay without any breathing support was billed at over 50k, plus 17k in doctors. I've never added EVERYTHING up. I know the normal hospital stay for the other baby was billed around 5k.

lpichach · April 2012

we had our baby in the NICU at 25 weeks in Vegas while on a "quick, 2 day" vacation.... and we're from Canada. A nurse there we talked to said her friend had a 26 week preemie, 3 month NICU stay that cost $1.3 MM.

We were in the Vegas NICU for one month, and then transported back to Canada. Our insurance costs for the month including transport are in the range of $750,000

Mrs. Alice · April 2012

sweetsugarmama:
so far we only got a letter that says the drs caring for your babies are out of network for your insurance. since we had private insurance we had no maternity coverage I know I'm going to pay for some things but the c-section is supposed to be covered. I'm anxious to see what our crappy insurance will do. I wonder if they consider the hospital stay part of the c-sec or part of maternity. And the who knows how long we'll be in the nicu? I have a feeling it will be quite a long time before any bills are settled.

If their birth weights were less than 2lbs 10oz they should qualify for Medicaid automatically which can help tremedously with your NICU bills.

May524 · April 2012

Bills are rolling in daily for our 101 day NICU stay including a helicopter transfer and surgery.

thankthesox · April 2012

that's about what i was expecting... my baby will have about 10 weeks total and we just got a $60,000 claim notice for the first week! madness. i just increased my FSA account because i heard that you can use it for transportation/parking for hospital visits and i figured out we're going to spend about $2000 on parking and mileage to/from hospital every day. it will probably be about $4000 total for us out-of-pocket. (and i got most of my pumping supplies free from hospital)

thankthesox · April 2012

HarmsMomma:

Crazy isn't it?

We were "lucky" and only had 2 days in NICU and 2 days in special care but still had $480,000 for the total. Thank goodness for insurance!

holy crap half a million bucks for 4 days?? what hospital were you at?? i hope the food was good

snoangel79 · April 2012

Can't wait to see the bills and our stay was only 3 weeks! Well times two!! I'm a cancer survivor who went through a bone marrow transplant 10 years ago (using my own marrow, which you can do with lymphoma). All my cancer tx cost just under $2M... Out of pocket I paid about $6k, so luckily I had great insurance!

gysberger04 · April 2012

I just have to say I am super jealous of those of you who paid less than $1K out of pocket for everything! Our our of pocket max was $6K, plus the cost of travel to and from the hospital, hospital parking fees, our pump (insurance didn't cover it), etc. My 8 day hospital stay was over $30K and DD's 35+ day NICU stay was $250K, plus the bills from the NICU doctors (haven't added those up yet).

jenmikw · April 2012

I have no idea how much Owen's 45 day stay cost but I am thankful for government health insurance.

sweetsugarmama · April 2012

Mrs. Alice:
sweetsugarmama:
so far we only got a letter that says the drs caring for your babies are out of network for your insurance. since we had private insurance we had no maternity coverage I know I'm going to pay for some things but the c-section is supposed to be covered. I'm anxious to see what our crappy insurance will do. I wonder if they consider the hospital stay part of the c-sec or part of maternity. And the who knows how long we'll be in the nicu? I have a feeling it will be quite a long time before any bills are settled.

If their birth weights were less than 2lbs 10oz they should qualify for Medicaid automatically which can help tremedously with your NICU bills.

I heard that, but they were 3lb 13oz and 3lb 6oz.

sweetsugarmama · April 2012

Mrs. Alice:
sweetsugarmama:
so far we only got a letter that says the drs caring for your babies are out of network for your insurance. since we had private insurance we had no maternity coverage I know I'm going to pay for some things but the c-section is supposed to be covered. I'm anxious to see what our crappy insurance will do. I wonder if they consider the hospital stay part of the c-sec or part of maternity. And the who knows how long we'll be in the nicu? I have a feeling it will be quite a long time before any bills are settled.

If their birth weights were less than 2lbs 10oz they should qualify for Medicaid automatically which can help tremedously with your NICU bills.

Thanks, I had heard that, but they were 3lb 13oz and 3lb 6oz.

iristony · April 2012

I have no clue what my sons 74 day stay cost including an ambulance transfer 3 days before being released to another hospital for a surgery, my 26 days of hospitalized bedrest plus another 5 days post csection. We were very lucky- I think I paid a $25 copay at my first OBGYN appointment at 6 weeks and never paid another cent.

bhilyer · April 2012

I haven't received the claim statements from my insurance company yet. Luckily I went through the headache of filing for Medicaid for both of the boys, so we haven't paid a single cent for their first year of hospital stays and dr appt.

OrganicTeacher · April 2012

not sure how much all of our bills will be yet as they are just starting to come in - but we just got a bill for only the NICU (no dr, meds, tests, etc) for 98k. My hospital stay (also not including procedures or dr's) for 5 days in the hospital from my c section was 28k - and I know that the dr fee for my C sect will be around 14k. my out of pocket total for the year is 1k - and Wesley is on his daddy's insurance so his out of pocket is about 2k for the year. If the most we pay for all of this is 3k - I will be one happy gal.

Lilystar82 · April 2012

Grand total for my hospital bedrest stay and NICU was just under a million. Thank God for great insurance.

shanlubey · April 2012

My hospital stays, two deliveries, high risk care and Sam's 94 days in the hospital was $1.6M. Total OOP was about $10k, because we hit two different plan years. A 2 minute oxygen level check was charged as $780 by respiratory therapy. Thank goodness for good insurance.

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