- Delivery (room/board 1 day, pharmacy, medical/surgery supplies, sterile supplies, laboratory, recovery room, labor, delivery room, diagnostic services) = $3,405.30 (applying for assistance, just received this bill)
- Midwife's services (including prenatal care, labor/delivery, and postpartum visits) plus ultrasounds in office = $2,294.79 (everything except $600 was paid prior to delivery and I have a $200/mo. payment plan set up for 3 months. We received a 40% discount on everything because I was a self-paying patient.)
- Labwork (from first prenatal appointment and gestational diabetes screening) = $773.10 (financial assistance made it $587.97) + $215.00 + $418.10 (assistance applied for but denied) + $460.00 (for some unknown reason it was lowered to $138.00) = $1,544.20
- Special service in hospital (I'm guessing this is the Lactation Consultant charge) = $124.44 (unless something unexpected comes later, this is the only bill we have received for Spencer's stay. It appears everything but this has been covered by our insurance.)
Current total = $7,368.63* (Minus anything we get in terms of assistance on my major bill and I will update then)
*Not included in this number is the Emergency Room visit I made in December, a visit I am still annoyed about. It was unnecessary and turned out to be NOTHING. Right now the cost for it is around $1,100, because insurance won't cover it. I've applied for assistance and we'll see what happens. Because it wasn't directly related to the pregnancy, I didn't include it.
Also during the time all this was going on, Miles had an MRI done because of his eye condition. We applied for assistance on our part of the bill and the ENTIRE THING ended up being covered. I wrote my thank you letter to the Kosair Charities today. I'm still in shock about that.
Anyway, so there you have it, folks. What it cost US to have a baby with no maternity coverage. Let these numbers serve as a warning to everyone to make sure you have coverage. It could have been much worse, if I'd gotten an epidural or needed a C-section, or if he had been born with health problems and needed a NICU stay or (even worse) been denied coverage due to problems.
Spencer will forever be known as my Priceless Baby. We'll be paying for him (in payment plans) for quite some time.
1 comment:
Wow - that is a lot - but like you said, it could have been a lot worse with a c-section and/or other interventions.
My son has had 4 nose surgeries and will have more. Though they are covered by insurance our out of pocket part hit our max last year (5 grand) and will do it this year too. So we say he is wearing our new car on his face. ha ha. We are trying to make our tiny car last longer to pay for his bills. We were hoping to get a more family friendly sized car :( Oh well - he is worth it!
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