How much does a hospital birth cost you? - Page 2

[CallMeMommy]

DS cost us $3000 - his total bill was over $125,000 and $3000 was our out of pocket limit for insurance, which we hit. I don't know what my portion was, I never really looked, I just knew DS sent us over the limit.

[pammysue]

I paid-

$20.00 co-pay to midwife for all prenatal care

$20.00 copay for a 1.5 minute visit with the back-up Dr. in case I had a c-section

$250.00 co-pay for hospital

[layla983]

My hospital charged for every little thing, which I didn't even realize until after we were sent the bill & insurance statement on what they paid.

For my induction (still bitter about that one), I was admitted on a Thursday morning, had DS on Friday morning, stayed until Sunday afternoon. So I was billed for 4 day stay in hospital. They billed insurance for close to $6,000, insurance applied their discounts (the amounts the hospital has to settle for, varies among companies) & got the bill down to just over $2,000. We owed $300 for our cut after insurance paid. Doctor was paid 100% of his delivery fee of around $2500. This was all vaginal birth. If I'd had a c-section, like the doctor was getting ready to set up, I would have been charged for a vaginal delivery & c-section delivery by the hospital. According to them, even if I didn't have a vaginal delivery, they would of course charge for setting up for one.

They also billed nursery charges for DS that came to close to $2,000, insurance once again applied their discounts & got the bill to $500, then we paid like $50 of it. Also paid seperate for the ped to come & give the baby a look over when I delivered & again when we left. That was around another $50 total.

I also had an epidural, they billed $4,000 for, insurance got it down to $1,000, I paid $100 of it.

But, like I said, we were charged for everything. When I inquired what "hospital extras" were, I was told that was anything in the room, including the TV & chairs.

Insurance paid 100% of my prental visits, 80% of ultrasounds & labs.

[PNWmama]

The total bill submitted to out insurance was a bit over $10k. After insurance we ended up paying about $400 for me and everything for the baby was completely covered.

[suearoo22]

I have no clue what the actual hospital bills were but my last birth was the only one I had to pay anything for and that was $12 for my first prenatal visit. DH was in the military for the other 3 and it was completly free last one was with the military retiree insurance.

[not now]

$20 for the whole shebang.

[kltroy]

I recently had a completely intervention-free hospital VBAC. Total bill was something around $10,000. This included 2 nights in the hospital (one of those was in L&D - my baby was born at 3:26 AM and I left 36 hours later), monitoring for me during labor (because of the VBAC, plus they had some legit concerns about my baby at the time), one night in the hospital for the baby (who roomed in with me, but they charge for the baby supplies like diapers, blankets and laundry, etc I'm assuming). I was floored that it could be so expensive, since I had no epidural, no IV, nothing like that. Fortunately, my insurance paid for all but $92 of it.

[lifeguard]

WOW!!! Coming from Canada we were pretty concerned at what it would cost us down here but it really was pretty reasonable at looking at some of these costs!!! I paid about $50 per appointment. The actual birth & hospital stay (vaginal birth, no drugs) was just under $1000 - it would have been close to free if we used a public hospital but as we have additional coverage we chose the nicer, closer, private hospital.

[L&K'smommie]

Well with my first two I paid $1100 out of pocket for prenatal care and birth(both provider and hospital). But the actual bill was $4000 for prenatal care and birth from the provider plus about $6000 from the hospital...but I stay only as long as I have to which is about 24 hours and I had a drug free birth.
I'm going with a homebirth this time and the total charge for everything would be around $4000, but my insurance should cover 80% of that.

[boringscreenname]

I didn't have insurance when I was pregnant and we made too much to qualify for any type of assistance. So I went to the hospital I intended to deliver at and signed up for an OB contract which covered all prenatal care, tests, ultrasounds, hospital stay, 6 week appt. etc... for $2400.

[Belle]

DD1 was born in a hospital. Both myself and dh had separate insurance plans so both of those plans went to our hospital bill. The total bill for a normal vaginal birth with no drugs was around $5000 or so. We paid a $30 copay to both insurance companies.

The miscarriage that I had for pregnancy #2 was by far the most expensive. I hemorrhaged and had an emergency d&c and a transfusion. We're still paying for it. Our insurance was much worse now since I wasn't working and dh's employer switched to HSAs with a $3000 deductible. I got an itemized bill. I think the out of pocket was around $6000. Total bill was around $9400
The bill was:
Ambulance $800 (for less than a mile drive)
ER $3000 (For my 45 min. of time there before I was rushed into surgery)
Surgeon $800
Anesthesiologist $800
Anesthesia $1000 (Yes, this is a separate fee)
OR usage $1000
Blood transfusion. $350
Post Surgery $500
Mystery medication that they gave me at some point $300
Rhogam $150
SEMI-private room $400 (Semi-private means I got a curtain between myself and roomie but that didn't stop her from talking incessantly and blasting the TV at 2:00am)
$26 each for the two advil that I took.
This one pisses me off more than any other, $4 for bottled water when I had none and my dh filled up my cup with tap water.
I may have missed some, I'm doing it by memory.

For Dd2's birth we had her at home. Same crappy insurance as pregnancy #2. We met the $3000 deductible before the birth because my dh had to go to the emergency room. We paid our midwives fee of $2800 in advance and our midwives billed insurance and reimbursed us what was paid to them. I think our out of pocket was only around $300. It was worth every penny.

[chi_mama]

2 night stay, induced with pit, no complications, no anesthesia. Hospital billed insurance $10,200. They billed for every item that entered my room regardless of if I asked for it or used it.
I paid 20% of that bill + $1000 deductible for each year in which I was pregnant (I met 2005 deductible at 20 weeks, then 2006 came and we started again) + 20% of all labs, US ect.
When I called to challenge paying for things I didn't use/get my insurance told me that they don't argue with bills from in-network providers.
Anyways total out of pocket was just under $5000. My insurance waived my $1000/night copy for hospital stay b/c I agreed to talk to their "baby-benefit" program nurse each month (which basically was a discussion about what could go wrong each month)
Next time I plan to use a MW for HB and save the extra money to extend my maternity leave an extra month.

[sbrinton]

With my first two boys, we had fairly uncomplicated hospital births. With my older son, I had an epidural so we had a bill for that. My younger son spent 4 days in the NICU. During both pregnancies, I was on expensive medications for hyperemesis and then in and out of the hospital near the end with preterm labor. I think for each of these pregnancies, the total bill was in the $40-50,000 range.

But we have great insurance, so we paid $0.

This time, I've had a high-risk pregnancy. My health insurance has already paid over $20,000 in doctors fees and that does not include the OB, hospital, medication, NICU or most things. I think the total for me and baby (including several weeks of hospital bed rest followed by at least month in the NICU) will be upwards of $250,000.

Again, great insurance. Our bill will be $0. We won't pay a dime. Our insurance company will even buy me a breast pump!

[ShwarmaQueen]

Just hospital- ~$30,000. That was a c/s with 4 hrs in NICU 2, 2 night stay.

[septbabymama]

I had a natural birth and stayed the hospital 2 nights in a private room. Non-private rooms are free.

$500 co-pay for hospital use
$20 co-pay for first prenatal visit
$1500 for 2 nights in private room.

[one_lucky_mom]

We have insurance that we pay for monthly through my husbands work. We had a $2,000 deductable that we have to pay for me and then we had to pay a little more (couple hundred?) but I don't recall how that was calculated. I had to have a emergency c-section due to my daughter being stuck, so it may be different for us if I have a normal vaginal delievery, I should call and ask because that's how I plan for it to turn out this next time. My Midwifes office does package prices. So there is a price for vaginal and then one for c-section and such. The c-section package is much more than vaginal. When I looked at the bill break down I don't remember what the total was, but it was out there for sure. In the bill they charged for the nursery that we never used and that was expensive all by itself, we didn't have to pay for that though due to our daughter being healthy, but if she would have just got jundice we would have had to pay a $2,000 decductable on her as well.

[Honey693]

Insurance covered a huge chunk, but this is what I paid out of pocket.

$2700 - doctor fee
$500 - hospital charges for a 24 stay w/no anesthesiologist or epidural which included a room fee for Ella even though she was in the room I was already in. This made me so mad b/c it's basically double charging for the room and that was the bulk of the bill.
$200 - misc. lab fees during pregnancy

[texaspeach]

wow. I can't get over the cost.

I had a similar experience to Belle - I had a planned, non-emergency d&c for missed miscarriage earlier this year and the total bill before insurance was nearly 10k. It was under ga at a surgery center- I was there for 45 minutes in recovery and then went home. We have pretty decent insurance and paid about 1500.

I wonder what it would have cost before insurance for a c-section at the hospital associated with the surgery center I went to.. they have a c-section rate of almost 50%

[filiadeluna]

$0 ... that's right ZERO. :

I am one of the few Americans who can say that I have AWESOME insurance coverage! I haven't paid one CENT for my prenatal care, and the hospital is 100% covered as well. Plus I get to use Certified Nurse Midwives instead of just a regular OB. I am very, very fortunate.

[suprgrl]

Lynchburg, VA

approx. $8000 for drug-free (besides one shot of abx. and pitocin following delivery) vaginal delivery. Dr was in the room a total of 30 minutes.