Hospital bills: The cost of L&D

ginaannechelan · October 2015

My insurance is processing my claim to cover the cost, but I was dumb founded at the total price: $27,000 and some change.

I'm in AZ. Have any of you seen your bills? I want to ask for an itemized receipt just out of curiosity.

I spent three nights at the hospital and had nearly every intervention through 23 hours of labor that ended in a c section (LO's heart wasn't handling the contractions).

Edited: ugh, auto correct.

kazmierczak0314 · October 2015

Wow that's a lot of money. Mine is about 15000ish vaginally with an epidural 3 days in hospital. At least that's the total I've seen so far. Idk if I have any more bills coming or not.

kazmierczak0314 · October 2015

Oh and I'm in MN.

jbettles · October 2015

I'm in KS, my total was a little over $9,000. Vaginal delivery with spinal block, no complications and no other drugs. Insurance covered most of it. My SIL had an emergency c section at the same hospital 3 years ago and her bill was over $20,000. What floored me is LO's circumcision was $1500. That's just ridiculous to me!!

LoveLee85 · October 2015

We have three different bills coming! hospital bill, obgyn bill, and anesthesiologist bill! Only had my obgyn bill so far! Only a few hundred, and it had the circumcision on it, $350. I can't believe your sons was $1500?!?! @jbettles

Kristyhana · October 2015

I was on hospital bed rest for a month prior to my csection and baby spent 10 days in the nicu. So far my insurance has been billed over $250,000! My out of pocket maximum for the 2 of us is $10,000 so I have to pay that much.

mel0601 · October 2015

Oh my gosh! I've just popped in here to have a lookie Lou and I am all like @-) over here in Australia it doesn't cost a thing to have a baby! I had a c section, and spent three nights in hospital and didn't cost me a cent!
How can they charge you all so much!

ginaannechelan · October 2015

@Kristyhana - I can't imagine a bed rest bill! Holy Moly!

I spent 2 hours in the phone with the hospital billing department giving them my primary and secondary insurance again. It's such a crap show!

sarahnikai · October 2015

OK next time we have a baby we're moving to Australia!!

@mel0601

callistosmile · October 2015

We were in the hospital for four days and my charges were $31,000. It's just listed as hospital services so I don't know if that's for the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, my ob, and everything else I needed or what. I have double insurance so I likely won't see a bill at all.

melco19 · October 2015

I'm in Canada and this is shocking to me!!! It costs nothing to have a baby here. My son's circumsicion was $160. But that was it.

alyjmac · October 2015

Living in Canada and as far as I know I just have to pay $300 for the circumcision. I can't even imagine paying as much as some of you do!

lillaura4unme · October 2015

i have insurance and have paid $3,700 out of pocket so far. And got an additional $2,000 bill from OB for emergency c section, $1,300 from anesthesiologist and likely to get another bill from hospital.

Kayciejoe56 · October 2015

I paid an OB bill (for delivery) of 200$, months ago. My hospital bill just came I owed 540$ after insurance. I have not seen a breakdown, so I'm not sure what the total bill was, but I know I have a very good insurance plan, which is why I ended up with a pretty reasonable bill.

hlb8179 · October 2015

I had a weeklong stay with C section for $30,000 and LO was in NICU for $50,000. We got an itemized bill. After a couple months, all insurance coverage has been processed. We will pay a total of $340. So my suggestion is to not worry too much and give it time to al go thru insurance. And don't hesitate to call your dr or hospital because they can advocate for more or better coverage from insurance.

mel0601 · October 2015

sarahnikai said:
OK next time we have a baby we're moving to Australia!!

@mel0601

Hehe over you come! I'll be your guide and introduce you to vegemite and lamingtons! Hehe

PickledPlums · October 2015

NJ- just the 3 day hospital stay was $45,000, not including the epidural.

tlc11934 · October 2015

I was surprised for my LO to receive her first bill . The blood test to see what blood type she is and the glucose tests because she was over 9lbs (I did not have GD). We'll pay $60 out of pocket for those. My bills didn't come yet but last time the out of pocket came to $1000 or so with top notch insurance.

dmbfan46835 · October 2015

Indiana, I have a PPO with a max out of pocket of $2600. My OB did global billing so I got billed $800 at the beginning of my pregnancy to cover all the expected fees, so I paid that like 6 mos ago. My hospital bill for a vaginal delivery with no complications and a 48 hour stay was $16690, and I have to pay $1132.32 of this; my epidural cost $1153, of which I was billed $180 and the circumcision and charge for the pediatrician to check my son out after delivery was $739, of which I was billed $333.06. The stuff for my son was charged towards his out of pocket max and deductible and not mine which I think is just silly. I am pleasantly surprised by how much it cost to have this baby. I expected more to be honest.

sgleave · October 2015

I'm in TX. Emergency c section, 4 night hospital stay, baby intermittently in nicu, so far I've seen bills for $58k. With my out of pocket max I think I'll end up paying $2k for all of it, but the cost of healthcare is insane!

PregNancyClark · October 2015

My first birth was $80,000... Insurance covered it, but wow... This birth was at a birth center and was less than $5,000.

babs02 · October 2015

I'm in AZ too. Vaginal birth with epidural and was in the hospital for about 36 hours cost $17,000. Luckily insurance covers most so we'll pay $1,300. I had a basic break down but can't remember the costs off the top of my head.

ForeverEverAfter · October 2015

Holy cow! I'm in Canada, so I paid $140 to upgrade to a semi-private room, but everything else was covered by the province.

ReneeJ2011 · October 2015

My bill was around $45,000 for both of us. I was in the hospital on bedrest for 2 days before delivery then ended up with every intervention in the book and an emergency c section. Total hospital stay was 6 days. I also had a visit to triage for blood pressure monitoring. My portion of the bill was $266.82. My OB also does global billing so I had already paid her bill of $1056 spread out over February thru July when I went in for my appointments.

camaguire21 · October 2015

This was the breakdown for our birth. We live in Georgia

mrscheetah · October 2015

We're in Southern California and our total for a scheduled c section with four night stay at a private hospital was 36k. It's honestly about what I expected. Insurance should cover most of it, I'm expecting to pay maybe a couple of thousand but I honestly have no idea.

mmd091909 · October 2015

I haven't seen the hospital charges but insurance covers everything 100%. All we pay is $250 copay. I am very curious to see the actual bill though.

BrandiLaw87 · October 2015

ForeverEverAfter said:
Holy cow! I'm in Canada, so I paid $140 to upgrade to a semi-private room, but everything else was covered by the province.

Ditto, except we paid $180 for a private room. Totally worth it!

KissMeImScottish · October 2015

We live in Hawaii, but we're active duty military and I've actually tole my husband on multiple occasions that we are having any kids we plan to have while he's still in the military, because it's free health care, as long as he's still active duty. I'd be panicking if I got a bill on top of being sleep deprived and adjusting to the new budget!

jabeauty90 · October 2015

I'm not sure what is was this time but my last pregnancy was over $18,000. I just paid oop for LOs circumcision and it was $300, insurance doesn't pay.

ktbkitten · October 2015

I can't get over how shitty insurance is in America. It shouldn't cost so much to have a baby. Not to get too political but if we actually got a single payer insurance system we wouldn't have to deal with this crap. It's not like any of you women received unnecessary care.

I have really good medical insurance. It should have only cost me $10. I received the bill and for an unmediated birth it wasn't horrible. I haven't received the bill for my portion yet. I checked with my provider multiple times and was told repeatedly that everything was covered at 100%. We shall see.

BeachBabe22 · October 2015

My husband is military and I have Tricare Prime so everything is covered. I've never had an out of pocket expense for any medical services for myself or children. Our prescriptions are also free. I know a lot of people complain about how bad military doctors and hospitals are but I've always had a great experience!

GeorgiaDottie · October 2015

we haven't gotten a bill but with BCBS gold plan we'll still have to hit our OOP Max of $4,000. However we were at $2000 before the hospital and I have $550 still in my FSA but hoprfully we only owe $1500 max left to hit the $4k. But we'll see. Gotta love the insurance of a state employee (teacher)

GeorgiaDottie · October 2015

@camaguire21 I'm in GA too, well Atlanta. Curious which hospital that was?

baker1jm2 · October 2015

We're at 26,000 for vaginal with epidural and that's not even including our daughters jaundice treatments. Our room was 15,000 alone for 3 nights, insane!

jbettles · October 2015

@GeorgiaDottie I'm a teacher, too!! My insurance is similar, but they wrote off a lot of the charges so my OOP total for everything is about $2500. Luckily I have been making payments to my OB and the hospital knocks off 20% if you pay by the end of the first billing cycle. We have enough in savings to pay it so we only owe a total of $1100 at this point. Still outrageous, and that doesn't include any of baby's charges. SO FAR my husband's new insurance has covered 100% of the bills for baby. Fingers crossed the trend continues.

camaguire21 · October 2015

@GeorgiaDottie St. Joseph's/candler in Savannah

JessicaS0914 · October 2015

the costs are artificially inflated because the docs and hospitals know they're only going to get a fraction of it from insurance. Amount billed =\= amount paid.

jabeauty90 · October 2015

Here you not only have to pay the hospital but you also get billed separately from the dr.

bijouxbleu · October 2015

Thankfully, I have Tricare as well. Opted for Standard, so I knew I had to pay some sort of co pays, but there weren't a lot. I had a csection with a 4 day hospital stay and it cost about 60 bucks total. With the prior co pays, the total cost of my pregnancy is less than 150 bucks

lnds32 · October 2015

We are a military family as well and have tricare prime which covers everything. I can't imagine waiting for bills to come in the mail but not knowing how much it will cost. So stressful! Insurance companies suck is basically the bottom line!

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