Price tag for delivery - $44,400!

[Nika]

Saw my statement of benefits.

I thought this was pretty crazy, especially the room charge. Yes, the service was good, I had a nurse that stayed with me through labor (I went through entire labor before ending up in unscheduled c-section), I was checked by residents and attending quite often, care was good.

Don't even know what emergency room charge is for - I did not go through the emergency room, I went straight to the delivery floor.
But I'm not sure I want to argue that mistake, considering that insurance paid it and there is another mistake on the statement - I actually had a private room, not semi-private. (would that be 50K per room?)

I did not know that a c-section was close to 45K these days. Without great insurance we would be up a creek.

[DaveInPgh]

WOW!

And sadly they get away with insurance fraud all the time by billing for services not rendered. Not many analyze their statement when it is being covered by insurance.

[DaveInPgh]

I just stumbled upon this on Reddit. A woman saying she was charged $39.95 to hold her baby after her c-section

[Like2Plan]

Congrats on your new addition! I hope you are both doing well.
The bill is quite an eye opener.

[james.hendrickson]

Its shocking that the hospital would charge you $40 dollars to hold your own child. They might as well charge you for the air you breath in the delivery room.

[disneysteve]

Don't even know what emergency room charge is for - I did not go through the emergency room, I went straight to the delivery floor.

I would contest that. If you were not registered/processed through the ER, you might be able to get them to remove that charge. If the insurance already paid, they may either refund the insurer or that amount would come off of your out of pocket costs, if any.

The last time my wife was in the hospital, I found a $1,000 error when I got the itemized bill. Insurance had already paid, so they took that $1,000 of what we owed personally. That was a nice find.

[rennigade]

Does anyone know why C sections are done so frequently now? Our last 5 friends who had kids all had C sections. I dont get it?

[DaveInPgh]

Its shocking that the hospital would charge you $40 dollars to hold your own child. They might as well charge you for the air you breath in the delivery room.

That was the interpretation of the woman who posted it on Reddit.

Does anyone know what else "skin to skin" could mean for that type of procedure?

[disneysteve]

Does anyone know why C sections are done so frequently now? Our last 5 friends who had kids all had C sections. I dont get it?

There are some legitimate reasons why C sections are more common like women having babies later in life, rising obesity rates, and diabetes. However, a study not long ago found that the biggest factor that determined whether or not you would have a C section was your choice of hospitals. Some hospitals just do way too many of them for no good reason.

If you are pregnant or planning to get pregnant, do your homework. Check out your local hospitals and find out what their C section rate is and choose accordingly.

[TexasHusker]

Insurance will pay from $6-8K for that bill.

[TexasHusker]

Does anyone know why C sections are done so frequently now? Our last 5 friends who had kids all had C sections. I dont get it?

1. Women often elect C-Section to avoid the pain of vaginal delivery. Many OB/GYNs happily oblige.

2. Many OB/GYNs are C-Section "trigger happy" out of defensive medicine. In other words, a quick-n-dirty C-Section is deemed less risky than the the various hazards of the birth canal journey. Even though studies show that vaginal delivery has significant benefits for the newborn, i.e. forcing fluid from the lungs, etc. Studies have shown that even breech babies can and should be delivered naturally unless there is some sort of specific added risk.

My son was full breech and was delivered naturally. Our OB/GYN said "no problem, you can push him out". He loathed C-Sections unless it was clearly necessary.

The physician makes the call on this, not the hospital. Hospitals don't practice medicine. If a particular hospital has a high C-Section rate, it is because the hospital is accommodating to one or more C-Section-first OB/GYNs.

[Like2Plan]

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/opinionator/2016/01/19/arsdarian-cutting-the-number-of-c-section-births/?referer=

http://www.consumerreports.org/doctors-hospitals/your-biggest-c-section-risk-may-be-your-hospital/

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/delivery.htm

Some interesting articles on the subject that echo what Disneysteve said.
Also, from the first article-- they said one of the reasons for higher rates at some hospitals was how the physician got paid. If paid by delivery--higher c-sections vs an hourly rate - lower number of c- sections. But, this is a complex issue and I'm not so sure it is so easily boiled down to one thing or another. The goal has been to reduce c-sections for a long time. If it was easy to fix, they would have done it by now.

[disneysteve]

The physician makes the call on this, not the hospital. Hospitals don't practice medicine.

Yes and no. Life isn't that simple.

Hospitals have policies and procedures that doctors need to follow if they work there, especially if they are actually employed by the hospital.

I do urgent care work for a local hospital system. The way I treat patients when working there is not always the same way I would treat an identical patient in my independent private practice where I don't have that oversight and have more freedom to make my own decisions. I'd certainly never do anything that I felt was wrong or harmful but I might be steered more in one direction when working at the hospital.

[DaveInPgh]

The Skin to Skin story made its way to MSN, along with an explanation by a nurse.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/pregnancyparenting/a-woman-had-a-baby-then-her-hospital-charged-her-dollar3935-to-hold-it/ar-BBwYQP4?li=BBnb7Kz

"As a labor and delivery nurse, I can kind of explain this. I didn't know that hospitals charged for it, but doing 'skin to skin' in the operating room requires an additional staff member to be present just to watch the baby. We used to take all babies to the nursery once the NICU team made sure everything was okay. "Skin to skin" in the OR is a relatively new thing and requires a second Labor and Delivery RN to come in to the OR and make sure the baby is safe."

[tripods68]

I wouldn't bother. Just let it go! Let it go!

Enjoy your baby!