Absolutely absurd hospital bills??!!

We received our first glimpse at what this twin pregnancy is going to cost this morning when I opened a statement from our health insurance company.

I had a Level II u/s done at the hospital and the hospital's charge was $6195! Plus the doctor charged $950. A follow-up u/s that I had done there a week later was $550, and I didn't even see a doctor at that visit.

Thankfully we have good insurance, so we won't have to pay those amounts in full, BUT STILL. I was in tears by the time I got off the phone with the hospital.

Anyone else been completely shocked by their doctor and hospital bills??

 

My twin pregnancy totaled close to half a million Nicu time and all

 

half a million?!! holy cow!
thank goodness for good insurance!!

 

I think it's important to remember that even if you don't have good insurance that you should check out all your options before paying any bills... totally non-related...but my un-insured brother smashed up his elbow really good, needed transfer to a better hospital and needed surgery and about a week in the hospital...and check up visits afterward..all of this to the tune of over 60,000$...now my brother had a bank account with around 25K in it...he's a student, lives very frugally, on a stipend, plus a gift from my parents to help him buy a car..so the 25k was to go toward his car (his old one was really dying). Anyway he expected that they would pretty much force him to hand over all his money...he was upfront and honest with them, he doesn't make much $ at all..but he did have all that cash in the bank...well, apparently our state has money set aside for cases like his...and he didn't have to pay anything more than 100$ partial payment for the ambulance ride. he was shocked..but pleasantly surprised. I know from experience that there are always ways to work with the hospitals, doctors and insurance companies to help with high bills or even high co-pays. Medical billing can be scary , especially with how quickly they throw on those bright red stickers saying they are reporting this on your credit..but they are actually extremely patient...as long as you make an attempt at communicating about it, they will keep postponing the credit report, until you can sort things through or come up with at least some of the money.

 

It's more the principal of it. Luckily we found out it was twins right before open enrollment so we decided to go with the "gold" insurance plan.

I'm just pissed that hospitals and doctors are able to get away w/ highway robbery. The peri charged $280 just for the "consultation" and he was in the room with me less then 5 minutes. And $6195 for an u/s?? I didn't break the machine for pete's sake.

What is also ridiculous is that the sonographer at the Level II gave us grief when we asked her to turn on the 3D! For those prices they should do the 3D, blow up the pics, have them matted, framed and come hang them on the wall!!

 

Oh my gosh! In Canada all we pay is $264 for our health care coverage every 3 months for an entire family. I had no idea it was that expensive in the US.

 

It's crazy what they can charge you for. When I had my babies the anesthesialogist (sp?) came into my room the following morning and asked how I was feeling. He was literally there less than a minute, yet he billd us $224.00! Luckily we have dual insurance so I only had to pay one $15.00 copay for all my OB, delivery and hospital charges.

One thing that killed me when I got the bills was how much they charge for the room. I understand billing me, but on top of what they charged me per day (which was almost $700.00, not including nursing, meds, etc) They charged over $200.00/day for each baby. So I was paying $1100.00/day for just my room!

It adds up quickly, especially since you've got all kinds of extra ultrasounds and stuff with a multiple pregnancy.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Amy28:
Oh my gosh! In Canada all we pay is $264 for our health care coverage every 3 months for an entire family. I had no idea it was that expensive in the US.


I am in Canada to - that 264$ covers your drugs and other stuff - not your medical - medical is free here, zip zilch nada - unless its a extended ben like drugs, physio, chiro etc....

Thankfully our employer pays for our extra's, we pay 20% of our drugs and thats it.

Sean

 

I received a statement from our insurance company on Saturday and went bolistic!! When I was pg with DD, I didn't pay anything. On this statement, it showed that they didn't cover a penny of my b/w which was a first for me and deemed it "not reasonable cause". Nice huh!! Then the my u/s was $465 dollars. They paid part to them, and then sent us a check for another part, but we still will owe after that. I was a mess....all I kept thinking was all the upcoming u/s I will have.

DH called the insurance company yesterday and said they are not sure why the b/w wasn't covered, but it isn't our responsibility, and not sure why we were sent a check. All of our appts, u/s, b/w is 80/20.

Anything when it comes to the hospital is 100%. I was relieved to hear that.

Scary though!!

April

 

I was in the hospital on bedrest for 5 weeks and it cost almost $40,000. My insurance covered it except copays on meds which meant we had to pay over $300 out of pocket. It is crazy how much they charge for the rooms. I told DH we could have been staying in a nice suite in Vegas.
I found out at my doc appt yesterday that my insurance may not cover u/s now and I had to sign a waiver saying I understood that and would pay for it if they decide not to cover it. DH is in the military and the insurance is starting to drive me nuts with what they pick and choose to pay for.

 

When the girls were born they filed my section and hospital stay incorrectly, and tried to bill me the $14,000 it cost...I was on the phone for weeks trying to straigten that out...looking back I really feel sorry for whoever was dealing with me b/c I was sleep deprived and cranky, but they deserved it

 

We have BCBS PPO "gold" but still don't know what our out of pocket cost is going to be for the delivery of my girls. I will say - I'm definitely concerned. I see the OB doctor every 2 weeks and at every visit he performs an ultrasound. I've been on bed rest since I was 14 weeks and that's when my bi-weekly appts and ultrasounds began. I can't even imagine what our OB bill is going to be. I was told I don't get a bill from the OB until after I deliver.

 

I think $6195 for an U/S is RIDICULOUS! I saw a peri group out of a university hospital and my level II was under $1000. My insurance covered every last penny of our hospital bills. My girls were $140,000 and $110,000, and I came to around the $50,000 mark total.

I expected our bills to be a lot higher but my particular hospital was cheap I guess, as far as medical costs are concerned. My girls spent 5 and 6 weeks in the NICU, and I spent about 4.5 weeks in the hospital, plus a c-section delivery.

 

Thank goodness my bills didn't come in until AFTER I delivered! Those numbers would have been enough to put me into labor in a blink!

Like someone else mentioned, our bills for my hospital stay (69 days on hospital bedrest) and the boys icu stays totalled just over one half million! Of course, the hospital didn't see even half of that because of insurance discounts and all I paid was my $250 deductible earlier in the year.

 

It's no secret that medical expenses can go thru the roof, but most insurance companies have some sort of contract with that provider with caps on what they can charge for various procedures. In total what your insurance pays will be a lot less.

What gets me is the difference in coverages of insurance plans. I have heard other folks say that they have to pay up front, and then are reimbursed a %, others that have to meet a deductable first, others that pay 10-20% of the total...I can't believe that all insurance plans aren't comparable. I work for the state of Tennessee and have very good insurance, I payed $100 total to have the twins, that's for all three of us. All my prenatal visits with the OB were free and I had a $20 copay for each peri visit (specialist). I pay about $170 a month for family coverage, regardless of how many family members, but I hardly have to pay anything else except copays which are minimal. I really feel lucky!!!

 

Yep, they are outragous! My total bill was close to half-a-million after everything was said and done...CRAZY!

 

I had normal deliveries and it still cost about $50,000 per kid and that was just for delivery. I have no idea what the weekly Dr visits and bi-weekly U/S visits costs. Our insurance covered everything - thank GOD!

Health care costs are insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VERO - we also have BCBS PPO - gold and we paid NOTHING! I think all your OB and Peds stuff is covered.

 

Including NICU time & U/S, mine was over $500,000. Of course when they bill you they always bill for 2 of everything for the babies.

 

I had close to 30,000 in doctor's bills by the time I was 19 weeks pregnant. Thankfully I have excellent insurance that covers close to a hundred percent of everything.

 

I agree that medical bills have gotten out of control in the US. I know that state of the art equipement is expensive, but I think the situation has gotten out of control and that much for the ultrasound is absurd.
I get free medical at the socialized clinic here, but wait times can be long and you have to be seen by two gp's to get referal to a specialist so I often just by pass it and see private doctors I pay out of pocket for. My private OB-GYN charges about 35 US dollars a visit which includes a level two ultrasound. He has the machine right there next to his examining table in his office. I decided to deliver in his private clinic instead of the public hospitial. There were six doctors and three nurses in the surgery and I ended up having a general anasetic after the spinal didn't work, and we all came home after 3 days. The bill for the delivery was 15,000 pesos. That's about 1500 dollars.

 

Yikes on the u/s bill! Are they the same company that charged the military $100,000 for a wrench a few years ago? I am trying to find all the costs and copays up front, which is hard to do on bed rest and deeply disquieting.

 

i'm right up there with all of the other posts. Our hospital bills were outstanding and luckily i was on the state insurance and it covered 100% and it still does for the boys. thing is is that the insurance company doesnt understand that i had two at the same time and for the longest time they were refusing to pay another bill because they thought that they already paid it. I called them and told them that they needed to pay all the bills b/c i had twins. they were like "oh....we didnt realize that.." to top all that off, between both boys and their surgies at teh Cleveland Clinic for their eyes, i know we have to have atleast a mililon in surgieries. Landons radiation itself was 80,000 i believe b/c we were in the hospital for a week almost and he had two surgeries during that time. Luckily the hospital covered all of it and they still are.
Good Luck
Amanda

 

quote:
I found out at my doc appt yesterday that my insurance may not cover u/s now and I had to sign a waiver saying I understood that and would pay for it if they decide not to cover it. DH is in the military and the insurance is starting to drive me nuts with what they pick and choose to pay for



my husband is military too and we havent had any problems with tri care as of yet. are you on prime or standard??

 

My insurance covered all doctors visits, u/s, everything up until I went into the hospital to have them. We owes $ 600.00 to the hospital and here is the kicker. The pedi charged us $ 900.00 PER CHILD, PER DAY to come see them in the NICU for 12 days. Insurance only covered 1/2 of that. I could not believe that he charged that much for spending 20 minutes tops with both my children everyday. No wonder he lives in a huges house and drives a really expensive SUV!!

 

When my husband passed away last December I made sure that I have the same insurance by going through COBRA. I pay almost five hundred a month right now. The hospitals charge crazy amounts of money as well as the doctors. I have been without insurance before I married my husband and it was rough paying bills on my own.