The cost of having a baby has broken the $2,000 mark thanks to a surprise bill

Heh, I've got six kids, so I know it's expensive to have kids. But sheesh, I have insurance. I think you're approaching what I paid in total for having a kid, and that includes the DELIVERY.

What are you guys going to do about the hospital stay??? That's a scary number that's to the left of the 'portion covered by your insurance' column!

@Samantha... thank you for your comments. We've been getting a lot of comments about a midwife on other posts. A ton of them actually! :) Still no solid decision has been made yet, but we will let everyone know with the direction we go in.

@Adeah... thank you for your comments as well! Just an FYI... I'm very sorry, but I needed to remove the links in your post. I'm very familiar with the company you mentioned. And for reasons I cannot discuss, I cannot have posts/ads for that company here. I hope you understand, as I truly do appreciate the info you provided and your comment. A big CONGRATS to you guys on your 2nd!

Hey YOU have options with this situation. What would I do you asked? I would call my attorney....I know you already have dished out $2000 and counting...but listen...these large corp "mistakes" are what I call life events because it happens with out planning (sound familiar). Large companies bank on the fact that you don't know your rights and won't do anything but yell, threaten and then pay them the money. Unless you have a membership with xxxxxxx

We had a similar issue with our health insurance when we switched to a better option for self-employment. The old company would not refund mid-month...until our attorney wrote them a letter reminding them they had to pro-rate us because it was our legal right to switch providers as long as we continued our insurance with another company. Yes! that was $600 back in our pockets. Thanx for your blog! We are 7 weeks preg. w/our second baby! We are having fun following you guys.
Cheers,
Adeah

Hey Tarzan,

We just had a baby boy in December. We went with the midwife, as this was our second child, and we could not have been HAPPIER. I just wanted to chime in on the bill thing. We have maternity coverage, and we are still getting bills from the hospital. Apparently every doctor that looked at either me or Miles bills seperately. Even the insurance company is confused about the billing. I think that because its a pregnant woman and her baby, they just figure you'll do everything exactly as they say because they know best. I would do what MVP says and be very wary about tests. Ask lots of questions. I can't imagine what it would cost to have a baby without insurance, so get the most for your money that you can. And definitely go with a midwife if you can. It saved us money for sure.

Crysi... eeks. Totally sucks you'd have to drive 3 hours to see a different doctor. Man... sometimes even having insurance can cause major headaches!

Ugh, same here. We had to pay a $100 "deposit" yesterday at the high risk place before our ultrasound. They're the only high risk doctors in the area and are not preferred providers so we get stuck with the majority of the bill. The receptionist was kind enough to tell me to call my insurance and explain. They may decide to pay differently because we'd have to drive over 3 hours away to go to a different doctor. It seriously sucks. We'll be having at least 1 more ultrasound with them too, if not more.

The main reason I have a different doctor this time anyway was to be in network with my insurance.

Crysi’s last blog post..We're having...

Hey MVP - I think this is one of the first times I've been so adamant disputing a bill! Normally not like this, but at times like this, every penny counts.

This was a big wake up call for me to take things slow, make sure I understand exactly what is being done, why it's being done, and see if it's 100% necessary. I have a feeling this approach alone will save us a few thousand dollars on top of the methods I'll be using to negotiate with the hospital and other places (IF we go this route and do not use a mid-wife.... TBD) to drive down the bills.

I'm so curious how they'll respond to... "I have enough to pay for 30% of the bill now. You can either take that and we'll call it even, or I'll use that money to pay for another bill. And if I do that, all I'll be able to do is pay around $10 a month for the next 83 years to pay this off. Which one would you prefer me to do?"

The above is 1/2 serious, 1/2 kidding... but I will be doing something like the above to give them a choice: Have a % of the money now, and we settle and clear the bills, or I use the money elsewhere and I pay a tiny amount every single month. We shall see how that works and if I can settle for less than 50%.

Good for you sticking up for yourself - and the little consumer - , Tarzan! A man after my own heart.

Even though you got this one figured out, I'd be very wary about all future tests, unless there's a demonstrated problem or major good reason to have them done. Again, lots of these are just routine and IMO unnecessary.

OK.... Just got off the phone with them. What a whirlwind. Come to find out somewhere hidden in the mix of all the documents, our doctor did in fact order these tests to be performed.

The woman I spoke to yesterday did not do any digging and just figured they were 'extra' tests and gave me B.S. info.

The guy I spoke to today was very, very nice. I was also nice on the phone calling him "Sir" and talked in a nice easy smooth tone. (Figured I'd try this angle instead of the irate guy angle I tried yesterday.)

He printed everything out and looked over everything line by line as far as what our doctor ordered and the tests that were done. Somehow the 4 items that we were billed the $250 for were missed when we were charged the first time.

Now because we do not have maternity insurance, there is some discount program they have in place. The first time we paid, the total was $564, but with our discount, we had to pay $320, which saved us a little money.

The guy I spoke to today saw that 3 of the 4 items on the bill we received qualify for a discount for people paying cash and do not have maternity insurance - and the bill we received does not reflect the discount. So we'll be receiving a new bill in the mail sometime next week with the new amount to be paid. I'm guessing it'll be around $150-$175 or so.

So after all this craziness, we saved a little money. I surely hope things are not going to be like this at all with future bills, especially in July when our baby is born.

Fun, fun, fun.

Good luck lol! And thanks :)

Sarcastica’s last blog post..Worry and Stress

Hey Sarcastica, first of all - very cool name. Sounds like something that I would come up with for a domain name. :) Anyway, as far as the small print... nope - I have nothing except the 3 page receipt they gave me.

OK... I'm calling them right now.

Round 2.

DING!

I will post here and share what happened....

Deep breath....

Here we go....

Do you still have this sheet with the "small print"? I'd find it. I would try the case with the manager because it isn't fair that they would put something THAT important in small print.

But alas, who knows if you guys are going to get your way :( I hope you do though! That's ridiculous

Sarcastica’s last blog post..Worry and Stress