Doctor Double Billing?

Anyone else being double-billed for every doctor appt.? My peri charges me separate amounts for each baby for every ultrasound and NST. My latest bill came and he charged for $250x2 for a NST. Luckily, my insurance knocked it down to $40 per baby. I think it's ridiculous, but wasn't sure if this is normal.

 

My ob bills were all single. That seems a bit crazy to me. We did have some problems in the Nicu where they mixed up who was getting what on the INS or had one baby getting two of something.

 

Same here, my 18w u/s was about $500 per baby. Of course we have $1000 family deductible, so that comes right out of our pocket. I went yesterday to "finish up" they couldn't see a few things a few weeks ago and I asked if I was going to get charged for a full u/s and they said no, "we have a different code".

I'm happy we have health insurance, but man is it expensive.

 

Our insurance has covered everything so far 100%, but the few bills I've seen all have a single charge for the doctor, a ~$400 charge for Baby A's u/s (amt varies by week of pregnancy), and a ~$300 charge for Baby B's u/s - per appointment, of course.

 

We also have 100% coverage... BUT your insurance company will help you raise a stink about this. My friends with twins called the billing dept. at the hospital and complained and ended up only having to pay for one!! Our clinic/hospital does the same thing!!

 

I have heard that ultrasounds are billed individually for each baby because they have to take the same amount of time per baby (being twice as long as a singleton). That made sense to me. As far as the NST I was told they should be charged as 1 since they are done at the same time and theoretically do not take any more time than 1 (though from experience I know it takes forever to try to keep them both on the monitors). It is hard to see double billing but if they are taking twice as long I guess I can understand.

 

Wow, I never looked at the insurance statements on this (all our prenatal care was fully covered). I guess I can understand because of the time it takes, but I had never heard of that....I assumed that they just bill for the patient (which is just you).

 

My peri office charged per baby on ultrasounds...level 2 were right around $800 and I had those every 3 weeks from 12 weeks on thank goodness our insurance covered it all...we also had lots of BPPs and NSTs all those were billed per baby as well

 

Mine were VERY costly. I had an U/S with the twins at every single appt and I went twice a month, then started 3x a month... each U/S costed $1100. I only had 2 NST and they weren't that much... I think like $150-200 but they didn't double charge on those.

 

My u/s are done at a radiology facility not my ob (they are out of our network so their in-house cost is too high); since they book two back-to-back apptments in radiology i presume that they are charging insurance twice. Which makes sense to me.

My NST's ae done at my ob's and they bill twice because they can only monitor one baby at a time (unlke the hospital!) these run about $150 x 2.

Someones' u/s was $1100 EACH TIME - what were they using, the Hubble Telescope??

The whole insurance industry and medical complex makes me insane - there is a prediction that w/in ten years almost 25% of dollars spent in the US will be on healthcare, and the out of pocket costs for individuals has been rising steadily for the past decade.

I am very grateful every day that we have insurance even if it costs us a lot and doesn't cover everything, and i think of all the moms wh DON'T who end up w/out the kind of pre-natal and baby care necessary.

Sorry for the rant but - it makes me INSANE - we pride ourselves on being the most civilized and industrialized country in the world, but our record on healthcare STINKS!

ok, i'm off my soapbox -must be hormoens and bedrest!

 

WOW, that is sort of crazy! Even with insurance I can't believe the price for and ultrasound. Jordari is right, your health care system needs some serious help. I am so glad I live in Canada when it comes to paying for health care, where everything is covered. Even if I wanted to go for an ultrasound at a private practice the cost is 150.00 for 1/2 an hour.

I would be asking questions about the bill, seems a bit out there. PP is right, they should only charge for patient, not by the babies.

Juli

 

Mine was always per baby. That included u/s, NST, cord blood studies. It does seem like it should be per patient, but it wasn't.

 

My doc charges per baby but the second baby is always a discounted price. Our insurance covers it (thank goodness or we could never afford all the u/s). I guess it is up to each practice's procedures on how they charge.

 

Our's were always billed per baby for u/s and NSTs in the office. The only thing that wasn't billed per baby were my NSTs in the hospital. My peri wrote the order as monitoring and not as an NST so the hospital considered themselves to be monitoring only a single patient. He specifically did it that way to avoid the extra charges.

I was always fine with the double charge. Like someone mentioned, it takes twice as much time. Even with an NST, while the monitoring takes the same time for two, the doc has to interpret them separately, so that really didn't bother me either.

Our peri had very very reasonable prices though. Even my most indepth u/s were billed at $250 each baby (but discounted through insurance).

I actually started my pregnancy with quadruplets...my RE got quite a few dollars off of THOSE u/s! They lasted ages!

 

Dr's are not double billing, they are charging per patient, if they do NST or u/s in office. If a tech u/s both babies, it's 2 patients, right? Most insurance companies are comfused with this at first, they refuse the second bill until they figure out it's a twin pregnancy. If your ob charges for 2 office visits, I think that is double billing. Insurance companies want to pay the least they can, so they investigate all claims for services billed on the same day for the same patient. When I was hospitalized for PTL, I had 3 or 4 u/s daily, my insurance company denied the charges until the hospital proved they were necessary. You can always ask for itemized bills, it is your right, even if insurance company pays without question. Congrats on your 36 weeks!

 

Wow! I am going to ask my midwife about the double charging when I go in Friday. Our insurance paid for everthing when I was pg with my daughter. The only thing we pay is 20% of the b/w. For u/s with her, they only covered so many I think so I should check since I will be having many more. Of coarse, if it is medically necessary it may be different.

April

 

My insurance has a $75 co-pay per pregnancy and no deductible, so I pretty much scanned the explanation of benefits forms. I did notice that all my ultrasounds-the first at the hospital and the rest at the perinatology clinic-were all billed per baby. My u/s were around $2000 total for both babies at the peri office and the hospital u/s was $1200 total. My NST's were billed the same as a singleton-I'd presume like the pp that is because they could monitor both at once.

Angela

 

My OB had a flat rate for twins..... varying by delivery method. I had one each way so that was nice....
Anyway, I was billed for 2 ultrasounds everytime, 2 radiology bills to review the ultrasounds etc.
I have heard of some pedi's only charging one co-pay etc when you do well baby visits etc.... but I have not been that lucky.
Insurance did negotiate all the bills down, but it was still big.

 

We were billed twice for u/s's and NSTs. In essence, they are monitoring twice, so I can kind of understand it to some degree. But I think that it should at least be a discounted rate for the second one (since they do not have to get out new equipment, etc.).

 

All of my peri visits were billed as an appt/procedure for me, so everything was charged once, as one visit. But thankfully I have great insurance, all my prenatal visits with the OB were free, and the peri appts only had a $20 copay. All my EOB's that I got only had charges for 1 NST or growth scan or what ever they did that day. Maybe they bill it that way due to the contract that your Dr's office has with your insurance company???