re: Med bill question

I mean I’m gonna get a large bill anyway from the hospital charges. I’d rather everything go through insurance and know what the final outcome is and cross that bridge then.

Part of my frustration as well is that there’s some sort of miscommunication between the office and insurance with the prenatal visits being covered or not it seems. Our insurance covers that 100% as “routine checkups” but it seems like the office is saying they don’t.

I understand not wanting to be screwed over or whatever it just seems weird to me to do it this way.

To answer your statement, boat, I would love that, personally, but her last pregnancy ended in an emergency section so I doubt that is a realistic option for us.

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before he it gets in too deep.

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it already was that’s why I’m here

OP that sounds like a typical medical billing scam. I wouldn't pay anything to those frickers right now other than copay at regular visits. Tell them and their "estimates" to F off until after delivery.

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I mean I’m gonna get a large bill anyway from the hospital charges. I’d rather everything go through insurance and know what the final outcome is and cross that bridge then.

Part of my frustration as well is that there’s some sort of miscommunication between the office and insurance with the prenatal visits being covered or not it seems. Our insurance covers that 100% as “routine checkups” but it seems like the office is saying they don’t.

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Yeah based on this, zero chance any “estimate” they’d base an installment plan on is accurate.

Question is, how much does your wife want this particular OB to handle her care/delivery? You can tell them to kick rocks but they could tell you that it’s a condition of her prenatal care/delivery.

Did we already do this? Does the OB also moonlight as a chiro?

I have heard about this being a common thing and being sold as a way to keep you from getting hit with a large bill at the end. But the reality is, it's a way to ensure they receive their full payment and don't have to harass you for payment after the fact. As others pointed out, with medical bills no longer affecting people's credit; there is a huge risk/concern for medical providers that they will have to eat huge write-offs.

They would need to be a significant discount for me to pay up-front (over 20%), and the refund process would need to be clear and guarantees of seamless. What if you change providers mid-way, the OB isn't available around the due date and you need to go somewhere else, lose the baby at any point during the pregnancy, etc. I doubt you would want to deal with the hassle of getting your money back while also dealing with these difficult issues.

Totally normal.

Yea if I was saying I don’t understand at all why this is a thing I’d be disingenuous. I get it. It’s just frustrating on the patient side when I thought this was part of the whole point of insurance. I called them (insurance) a few hours ago and the said the total is likely to be way less than that. This isn’t a mom and pop operation either (the OB) it’s a pretty large office that sees a ton of patients. I doubt they’re hurting for the money that bad to need it right this instant.

How dare you assume their gender.

And I thought you were progressive

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Got an “estimate” from my wife’s OB in the mail yesterday trying to charge us the “estimated charges for pregnancy care” and get us on a payment plan with the first payment due at her first visit.

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Seems like the hospitals are doing this bc of all the people who never pay their medical bills...but i don't really see an advantage for the patient bc it's not like you can't set up a payment plan at the end of it all