Hospital costs

Introduction...my husband and I are expecting our first child in July
2004! My first OB appointment isn't until Dec 16 (the wait is driving
me crazy! The next 8 months are going to be very long...) Don't worry,
I'm taking my prenatal vitamins and trying to take good care of
myself.

In the meantime, I do have a question ...

How much can I expect the birth cost to be, lets say, Cleveland area,
healthy "everything goes well" birth? I have insurance, but am
wondering for copayment percentage costs, and its election time for
health savings accounts. We haven't told many people beyond my
parents, so I can't really poll friends/family without raising
suspicion. Is there a local resource I can contact?

I look forward to reading any advice, and hopefully contributing my
experience too!

ChattyK

Chatty K wrote:

Introduction...my husband and I are expecting our first child in July
2004! My first OB appointment isn't until Dec 16 (the wait is driving
me crazy! The next 8 months are going to be very long...) Don't worry,
I'm taking my prenatal vitamins and trying to take good care of
myself.

In the meantime, I do have a question ...

How much can I expect the birth cost to be, lets say, Cleveland area,
healthy "everything goes well" birth? I have insurance, but am
wondering for copayment percentage costs, and its election time for
health savings accounts. We haven't told many people beyond my
parents, so I can't really poll friends/family without raising
suspicion. Is there a local resource I can contact?

I look forward to reading any advice, and hopefully contributing my
experience too!


You are likely to find this outrageously difficult
information to get. You can ask your OB, who will likely
give you some idea of his or her standard fees, but what
is actually charged may depend on your insurance (some
providers agree to accept certain reduced fees). Often
the insurance will pay, say, 90 percent of "reasonable
and customary" charges, not necessarily 90 percent of
what your doctor *actually* charges. Still, you might
actually get information out of the OB. Getting information
out of the hospital is likely to be much worse, starting
with your getting routed around to everyone and his brother
trying to find someone who can answer financial questions
in the first place ;-)
If you want an easy answer, plan a homebirth
and hire a midwife, who will likely have a single fee
for the entire prenatal/birth/postnatal package ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

I've heard friends say that the standard fee for walking into a hospital
is between $8000 and $12,000, assuming nothing goes wrong, with the
typical 2-day stay. You pay whatever your insurance doesn't cover
(probably your full deductible plus a little extra). I'd guess most
people pay between $2000 and $3500 out of pocket, depending on their
deductible.

Ericka Kammerer wrote:

If you want an easy answer, plan a homebirth
and hire a midwife, who will likely have a single fee
for the entire prenatal/birth/postnatal package ;-)

And sometimes it's even covered -- our insurance (BlueCross/BlueShield
PPO) fully covered our freestanding birth center, and they would have
covered a homebirth as well (with a CNM, not a DEM). The lump payment
for all prenatal care, the birth, the doulas, and the followup visits,
at our birth center, was $2500 (before billing to insurance, I mean).
IIRC that included the 20-week ultrasound, although we may have been
billed a nominal copayment for that one.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 20 months

I've heard friends say that the standard fee for walking into a hospital
is between $8000 and $12,000, assuming nothing goes wrong, with the
typical 2-day stay.

Has it really gone up that much? Mine (for a 3 day stay), was a little under
3,000 for the hospital charges, including stuff like the epidural. (OB charges
were extra.) I know it was 12 years ago, but still, have costs really
quadrupled in that time?)

I'd guess most
people pay between $2000 and $3500 out of pocket, depending on their
deductible.

I paid nothing. (Insurance plans these days commonly don't have deductables,
just co-pays. I had a deductable at the time but, with a December birth, by
the time that rolled around, I'd long since paid it.)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

Every time I read numbers like this I'm thankful to be living in Canada! I
had a no-complications pregnancy, drug free delivery in the evening, 4
nights in hospital, 2 nights public ward (free), 2 nights private at
$75/night (covered by insurance anyhow). I don't think I could afford a
pregnancy if I were living in the US!


"Mary" wrote in message
...
I've heard friends say that the standard fee for walking into a hospital
is between $8000 and $12,000, assuming nothing goes wrong, with the
typical 2-day stay. You pay whatever your insurance doesn't cover
(probably your full deductible plus a little extra). I'd guess most
people pay between $2000 and $3500 out of pocket, depending on their
deductible.

Ericka Kammerer wrote:

If you want an easy answer, plan a homebirth
and hire a midwife, who will likely have a single fee
for the entire prenatal/birth/postnatal package ;-)

And sometimes it's even covered -- our insurance (BlueCross/BlueShield
PPO) fully covered our freestanding birth center, and they would have
covered a homebirth as well (with a CNM, not a DEM). The lump payment
for all prenatal care, the birth, the doulas, and the followup visits,
at our birth center, was $2500 (before billing to insurance, I mean).
IIRC that included the 20-week ultrasound, although we may have been
billed a nominal copayment for that one.

Mary S.
mom to the Sproutkin, 20 months

I'm thankful to be living in Canada! I
had a no-complications pregnancy, drug free delivery in the evening, 4
nights in hospital, 2 nights public ward (free), 2 nights private at
$75/night (covered by insurance anyhow). I don't think I could afford a

pregnancy if I were living in the US!

Except, if you were living in the US you would PROBABLY be insured, and your
insurance would cover the bulk of the costs. (And you really couldn't afford
either insurance or the costs of the co-pays/deductable, you probably couldn't
afford the cost of raising a child at that point in your life either!)


Naomi
CAPPA Certified Lactation Educator

(either remove spamblock or change address to to e-mail
reply.)

"KR" wrote in message
...
Every time I read numbers like this I'm thankful to be living in Canada!
I
had a no-complications pregnancy, drug free delivery in the evening, 4
nights in hospital, 2 nights public ward (free), 2 nights private at
$75/night (covered by insurance anyhow). I don't think I could afford a
pregnancy if I were living in the US!



I don't think we could if we weren't military. Our first 2 children cost
$60 each - and that was the cost of my meals in the hospital. Our 3rd was
free. Of course it *costs* us in many, many (and for Iraq I'll add another
"many" - lol) other ways

Naomi Pardue wrote:

I'd guess most
people pay between $2000 and $3500 out of pocket, depending on their
deductible.

I paid nothing. (Insurance plans these days commonly don't have deductables,
just co-pays. I had a deductable at the time but, with a December birth, by
the time that rolled around, I'd long since paid it.)

We paid probably a couple hundred dollars, and most of that was the extra
$60 per night they charged for a private room that insurance wouldn't cover.
I had a $10 copay my first OB visit, none after that.

I think that was it.

Mary

"Chatty K" wrote in message
om...
Introduction...my husband and I are expecting our first child in July
2004! My first OB appointment isn't until Dec 16 (the wait is driving
me crazy! The next 8 months are going to be very long...) Don't worry,
I'm taking my prenatal vitamins and trying to take good care of
myself.

In the meantime, I do have a question ...

How much can I expect the birth cost to be, lets say, Cleveland area,
healthy "everything goes well" birth? I have insurance, but am
wondering for copayment percentage costs, and its election time for
health savings accounts. We haven't told many people beyond my
parents, so I can't really poll friends/family without raising
suspicion. Is there a local resource I can contact?

I look forward to reading any advice, and hopefully contributing my
experience too!

ChattyK

I have no idea what the costs are in Cleveland area. But I do know that it
cost us a little over 6 grand each kid. LOL.....I don't mean to make them
sound like the tires on my vehicle. But this little guy is costing us alot
more because we will be banking his cord blood. (We included that in our
costs)

Crystal

My ob's office for some reason tried to bill us without running it through
my insurance as a self-pay. ?? I'm assuming there was some confusion because
when I found out I was pregnant and was getting too sick to adhere to the
strict attendance requirements (they literally would not let me get away
with coming in exactly 2 minutes late one morning I had vomiting- they
documented it as 8:02 am and said something to me! it was the first time I
was ever the leat bit late there, I was supposed to be there at 8 and was
usually there by 7:45) I quit my job, and transferred over to my husband's
insurance- there was no lapse in coverage and it was the exact same
insurance as we worked in different locations for the same company. The self
pay bill was for supposedly the whole thing, all prenatal visits and the
actual birth. The bill was just under $3000. I think it would have increased
with any extra complications such as c-section delivery etc but am not sure.

What it will actually cost us since they fixed the insurance thing is about
$200- that's our deductible. We pay one copayment of $15, and all other
visits are covered. I have no idea because it hasn't come up yet, exactly
what this includes as far as pain relief/epidural or other procedures, or
the hospital room if I want private etc. For all I know all their rooms are
private? I have no idea.