[tempestjewel]

I know there are many out there who birthed at PSBC, and I was wondering if you may be willing to share what you were billed for your birth and care there? I was billed for a total of $9,040 and honestly wasn't expecting it to be that much (my hospital birth and OB care for my previous birth including an epidural and yucko episiotomy and 2 day hospital stay was only abouy $7K). I had a minor tear and received a few stitches and was the birth center for the actual birth for a total of 8 hours.<br><br>
If you want to PM me or post here I'd appreciate it. I just want to make sure this is accurate. I have been emailing the billing lady asking about pretty much every bill that came through and am trying to avoid doing it a hundred times more.<br><br>
I totally think the midwives and birth center are worth the money, we are just on a VERY tight penny-pinching budget so when bills end up higher then anticipated I feel a little <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/dizzy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Dizzy">:<br><br>
Thank you!

 

[shalena]

Wow! I wouldn't have expected a bill like that either.<br><br>
I was under the 9 month preexisting condition clause with my insurance, so they only covered the fee for "delivery". We payed for the midwives and rental of the birth center (both were a flat fee if i recall correctly). I think out of pocket it was just under 4,000.<br>
I'm sorry you were surprised by the price. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/hug.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="hug">

 

[danotoyou2]

Jeez. That just seems outrageous to me!<br><br>
I would ask for an itemized list of all charges, and make sure there's no overbilling error. Because that seems really high, even for a hospital birth (with drugs!).<br><br>
If that is the right total, I'd set up a payment plan. And FYI, if you make steady, timely payments for medical bills, they can't send you to collections. So I'd made $20 payments every month like clockwork for a long time, and while they threatened to send me to collections, they couldn't legally.

 

[Jane]

That seems high. You should have a copy of the financial agreement you signed when you started care - that outlines the typical costs, I believe. I would try to call the billing woman and ask point blank - why was I billed more than $9K?

 

[tempestjewel]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>Apricot</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7925075"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">That seems high. You should have a copy of the financial agreement you signed when you started care - that outlines the typical costs, I believe. I would try to call the billing woman and ask point blank - why was I billed more than $9K?</div>
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My financial agreement just said I acknowledged responsibility for any bills, but it did not outline costs. The only absolute fees I knew about ahead of time were the fees they charge anyone to use the birth center ($2500 for mom, $1000 for baby).<br><br>
They have billed my insurance for the $9K- I am responsible for 10% of the charges, so ultimately up to around $900, but so far I have only been billed by the birth center for $300, so I'm trying to anticipate which bills are left.<br><br>
I spent several hours today on my insurance company's webpage (Aetna) downloading and trying to decode the charges <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/dizzy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Dizzy">: A lot of them I could make sense out of, but I guess I thought a lot more was included in the midwife flat fee that ended up billed all seperately.<br><br>
For instance, each time my blood was drawn there was a seperate charge, and all post-natal care was billed visit by visit (and not in the flat fee). Also, after birth the home visit fee alone was billed as $250 for my daughter and another $250 for me (plus a lab fee for the PKU heel poke for my daughter). All I did was talk to my midwives. If $500 is the cost of the home visit then next time I'll just have to forego it (my insurance is making me pay up the whammy for this because it wasn't an "office visit" and thus comes out of my deductible for the year which means more out of pocket). Plus I found another random charge for $1000 that I couldn't figure out what it was for at all.<br><br>
I loved my midwives and I loved the birth center but trying to square away all the bills has been a huge headache. I hate even challenging on this, but for us on a super tight budget I really need to understand why I'm paying so much for everything, because if I get billed for everything Aetna is saying they can bill me for (close to another $600) we'll have to cancel our family vacation or dig into savings a bit which has me feeling pretty <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Gloomy">: I just honestly did not think it would cost this much!

 

[PrinceE&LsMom]

Wow I had no idea. I just had my baby there on March 7th so haven't been billed yet but I too have Aetna and when I called in with all the qualifying questions they said my total out of pocket would not exceed $1500. Hmmm? Hope that was right as $ is tight here as well.

 

[tempestjewel]

I've been emailing with the biller again and fortunately she's been very patient with explaining charges, but the tone of her email is that she just submits claims for what the midwives tell her to. I received a post-partum survey from them that I will be submitting asking that they please provide a more detail fee schedule to clients.<br><br><div style="margin:20px;margin-top:5px;">
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<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="0" width="99%"><tr><td class="alt2" style="border:1px inset;">
<div>Originally Posted by <strong>PrinceE&LsMom</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7929970"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Wow I had no idea. I just had my baby there on March 7th so haven't been billed yet but I too have Aetna and when I called in with all the qualifying questions they said my total out of pocket would not exceed $1500. Hmmm? Hope that was right as $ is tight here as well.</div>
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A few things I have just learned about Aetna and the birth center that I did not know before. Because midwives are not licensed to do "preventative" or "well" care (according to the biller) the newborn exam is not looked at that way, and comes out of your deductible (unless you've met it for the year). The home visit does include charges for the mom and baby seperately and Aetna also takes this out of the deductible. These two charges were the bulk of our unexpected out-of-pocket expense. Some of what made it worse for us is because Hannah was born right at the end of one year, anything that happened after 1/1 started all over with unmet deductibles, so it was kind of a double whammy. Also, all post-partum visits are NOT part of the midwife fee, so these are all charged separately, thus a co-pay or deductible can apply to them.<br><br>
All of this has just been hard for me to process. I feel a bit nickle-and-dimed for every little thing (like being double charged for mom and baby at the home visit when all I did was have warm conversation). I loved my experience, so these bad feelings, well, just hit twice as hard <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Gloomy">: <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Gloomy">: <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="/img/vbsmilies/smilies/gloomy.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="Gloomy">:

 

[chaoticzenmom]

Have you had any bills come from PSB directly? I was shocked when my insurance bills started rolling in with crazy amounts as " my portion" but I never recieved any of those bills from PSBC. My experience was great too. They asked for 200 I think for baby after care and something else. Even though my insurance had my portion at being over 1000.<br><br>
I hope all gets worked out.<br>
Lisa

 

[tempestjewel]

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<div>Originally Posted by <strong>lisa49</strong> <a href="/community/forum/post/7941466"><img alt="View Post" class="inlineimg" src="/community/img/forum/go_quote.gif" style="border:0px solid;"></a></div>
<div style="font-style:italic;">Have you had any bills come from PSB directly? I was shocked when my insurance bills started rolling in with crazy amounts as " my portion" but I never recieved any of those bills from PSBC. My experience was great too. They asked for 200 I think for baby after care and something else. Even though my insurance had my portion at being over 1000.<br><br>
I hope all gets worked out.<br>
Lisa</div>
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So far we have been billed by PSBC for all the amounts our insurance shows us owing. We've paid a little over $300 out of pocket so far, so I am expecting an invoice soon for about another $560. Guess I'll just have to wait and see what the exact amount is when I get the final invoice. I just filled out my "after care" survey and I strongly suggested that they disclose the fees and billing practices up front so that people can anticipate more accurately the cost of care. I don't think they did anything shadey or anything, I just honestly did not know how it worked and if I had known it would have been easier to figure out what I needed to have available to pay my bill.<br><br>
I was talking to someone who likened the whole thing to buying organic produce. Yeah, you pay a little more, but its worth it for the extra care put into it. That made me feel a little better about it all. At least now I can anticipate the cost of having any future children there. If I end up interviewing any other care providers I now know EXACTLY what to ask about!