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How expensive was your hospital birth?

3K views 12 replies 11 participants last post by  erigeron 
#1 ·
We had a hospital birth and I checked today to see if our insurance was charged and was shocked at what I found! The total charges were $17,000!! That's just the hospital! That's not even our doctor's fee. No wonder people without insurance can't afford to pay their medical bills! When we had our first child via cesarean the total charge was $8,000. We had a successful (and quick!) VBAC this time and it's more than double? How does that add up? I'm anxious to see the itemized bill for this to see what all they are charging us for. I'm also curious how this compares to what everyone else is being charged. If you don't mind sharing, what is your hospital charging?
 
#3 ·
We unfortunately had a home birth transfer with forceps delivery and 4th degree tear repair, only stayed in the building for 20 hours and the total charges were somewhere between $17,000 and $20,000 I can't remember exactly. Pretty crazy.
 
#5 ·
So far, I am up to $7186. This was for an uncomplicated, routine birth with no painkillers/epidural, intermittent fetal monitoring, no IV. 2nd degree tear repair. Also with a midwife, no OB present in a birth center housed within a hospital. 2 night stay due to moderate (old) meconium staining and difficulty maintaining respirations in the first 14 hours following birth.

That total includes my son's costs. His hospital bill was $3054, mine $4132. This is all before insurance...still waiting to see what I actually owe. There is a chance that not all the bills are in as well.
 
#6 ·
My friend's uncomplicated vaginal hospital birth ran $16,000 (she's located in Oregon). I don't know what mine will run yet, but you're right that it is completely ridiculous.
 
#8 ·
So, this is not an outrageous amount? How is that possible?? It's so much money!

Quote:
Originally Posted by greencrunchymom View Post

HOLY CRAP! We had a home birth and it cost us $2300 out of pocket with no insurance billing.
Our home birth would have been 3600 (though they are now charging new clients 5,000). It's such a huge difference! Of course, the figure above does not include the fee for our OB or Ped. Unbelievable.
 
#9 ·
I think DH said ours was at 12,000 for a vaginal birth with epi and treatment for GBS and I was there Saturday night through Monday night. Only 24 hours exactly postpartum. They charged us room AND board for 3 days, 2 of which I was not allowed to eat!!!!!!! They also charged for room and board for baby.. I was like ummmmm, he didn't take up an extra room, I didn't send him to the nursery and he sure didn't eat anything provided by the hospital. It's just nuts. Robbery!
 
#11 ·
$15,000 for a c-section, anesthesia, and two night stay. And one separate charge for dr. check ups for the baby-- they charged $250 but insurance will pay for some of that. I pay for some good health insurance and I'm on the hook for $250. Insane-- and seems like such a game when you see the enormous bill and then look at the fine print and see things like "insurance discount"! My hospital and health insurance are the same company... if I had gone to a different hospital I would have had a huge bill.
 
#13 ·
ddcc... I forget how much our bill ran to for the birth in June 2011, though I think after insurance our share for everything (for baby, for me, fees for the CNM, and the audiologist) was about $700-800. I thought the same thing about the nursery charges, but my husband thinks that since the nursery is there and staffed they can't just charge the people who use it--having nursery care available is what they charge for, and we could have used it. Plus the nurses did provide some care for the baby in our room. Even though we were changing diapers and the like, they did monitor temperatures, weigh her, do the heel prick test, and otherwise keep an eye on her and help us care for her. idk.
 
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