million dollar babies

Specialties NICU

Published

I have a question...when parents have a baby in NICU, and they end up with a preemie that has a long/expensive hospital stay does this financially devestate them? If they have health insurance, and have a million dollar bill, do they have to pay 20% (if it's an 80/20 plan)? I really don't know how all insurance companies work, and if some only go by deductible only, or if they are all pretty much co-pay.

Can someone enlighten me? Would someone lose their home and everything if they had a million dollar baby and couldn't afford to cover their part of the premium? Would they be in debt forever??

Thanks,

~J

Specializes in level 3 NICU.

I have seen this go alot of ways. Where I work we have a one million$ cap per family on our health insurance. I have seen a parent of a micropremie get fired from her job after the baby had been in level3 NICU x8 months and the bill was well over 1million$ and still climbing, they told her to her face insurance was the reason but on paper sited poor sales. I know of many parents how have gone bankrupted trying to pay 20% of the i million$ plus hospital bill. Public assistance works for some parents.

Hi! As a mom of twins that were preemies and spent almost four weeks in the NICU I know that medical expenses can be overwhelming to say the least. That being said, what the stay costs is the VERY LAST thing on your mind when you are in that situation. I think it really depends on your insurance coverage and if you have a PPO or an HMO. My Husband carries insurance on us through his job and it is a PPO. Although we still ended up with approximately $38,000 in medical expenses to pay, many of the providers wrote off the portion of the expense that our insurance didn't cover and others obviously are accepting payments. I don't know about other states but in my state, healthcare providers can not turn you into collections or credit bureau if you make a payment every month. Believe me, especially in the beginning there were several months I sent them $5 checks. What are they going to do, repo your babies????

Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

I know the hospital I work at will turn you in to a collection agency....they have turned us in for co-pays that we refuse to pay because we paid them already! It is out of hand. My friend, who had a baby in our unit, said that it took them about a year to start coming after her for a payment plan. I've seen some of these bills for these kids, it is amazing the amount of the bills!

Specializes in midwifery, NICU.

Again-- Thank him above or whoever for the Good old NHS in Britain! The preemies and their parents have no worries about bills at the end of the stay, everything is done, no matter what the social circumstance/ income is! mind you, for the frequent flyers to our unit, drug addicts, etc, who have never done a days work in their lives, we pay our taxes to cover this-- whole other issue!

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
Again-- Thank him above or whoever for the Good old NHS in Britain! The preemies and their parents have no worries about bills at the end of the stay, everything is done, no matter what the social circumstance/ income is! mind you, for the frequent flyers to our unit, drug addicts, etc, who have never done a days work in their lives, we pay our taxes to cover this-- whole other issue!

No NHS here in the states, care of the babies of drug addicts is also taxpayer supported here (in reality, at some point, the care of almost all babies who need $1,000,000 worth of services is partially taxpayer supported, since very few people have the resources to pay for this level of care and very few insurance companies cover it in its entirety). To me, that is just part of the price of living in a civilized society that takes care of the most vulnerable amongst themselves.

Hi. I am a father of a 23 + 2, 1lb little baby girl. She will turn 4 in a few weeks and is doing great. Has a speech problem and a weak eye muscle but other than that she is a 4 year old girl.

Now on to the cost question. She was in the NICU for just under 4 months, with all the usually thing you see. Had PDA clamp with on other major items. Her hospital bill was $320,000, Dr. $300,000, total bills alittle over $800,000. Cheap for most 23 weekers. Insurance was great 80/20, NO lifetime cap. We did bankrupcy Chapter 7, wrote off creditcards, her medical bills, and other small bills. Kept the house and car, making payments. What people sometimes forget is that most families are 2 income, one person cannot work and loses her job over her baby, and the other goes down in hours to be with their child, you are down to one income. In our case 120 miles away you have gas money, basically two households to run (lucky we were in RMD), not to mention phone bills (cell phone one month's roaming/long distance $8000.00). Still have on credit , which is not a bad thing, will never have a indebt cards again or revolving credit. (Yes, Dave Ramsey)

As NICU nurses I thank all of you, I could not do it. Please remember sometimes otherthings are on the parents minds.

Kevin

P.S. 4 years later we are still getting bills.

Specializes in Surgical/MedSurg/Oncology/Hospice.

When my youngest daughter was born with cancer in 9/00, we had a typical health plan with 80/20 copay and a million dollar cap. By the time she was two years old (had been in remission for a year) her medical expenses were pushing $750,000. Our hospital hooked us up with Children's Special Health Care Services (a state Medicaid program formerly known as "Crippled Children's") and SSI before she was even two months old. CSHCS picked up any and all co-pays related to her cancer diagnosis. So, we never had to pay a dime tward her medical bills...one of the few times I have been grateful to be low-income! CSHCS even made the COBRA payments for my daughters medical coverage when hubby was laid off from that job, and they paid for the maximun 3 years that was allowed.

Now I'm getting divorced and both of the kids are covered by Medicaid. Once I am done with nursing school and get a job, my insurance will cover the kids...but I am told they will likely NOT cover my young cancer survivor, or at least not any expenses relating to her previous cancer diagnosis. Even though she is in remission, those yearly tests and checkups run an average of $20,000, and that's only if they don't find anything out of the ordinary. Since I'll be making decent money as a nurse, we of course won't qualify for CSHCS at that time to pick up what insurance won't cover...

Specializes in Public Health, DEI.
When my youngest daughter was born with cancer in 9/00, we had a typical health plan with 80/20 copay and a million dollar cap. By the time she was two years old (had been in remission for a year) her medical expenses were pushing $750,000. Our hospital hooked us up with Children's Special Health Care Services (a state Medicaid program formerly known as "Crippled Children's") and SSI before she was even two months old. CSHCS picked up any and all co-pays related to her cancer diagnosis. So, we never had to pay a dime tward her medical bills...one of the few times I have been grateful to be low-income! CSHCS even made the COBRA payments for my daughters medical coverage when hubby was laid off from that job, and they paid for the maximun 3 years that was allowed.

Now I'm getting divorced and both of the kids are covered by Medicaid. Once I am done with nursing school and get a job, my insurance will cover the kids...but I am told they will likely NOT cover my young cancer survivor, or at least not any expenses relating to her previous cancer diagnosis. Even though she is in remission, those yearly tests and checkups run an average of $20,000, and that's only if they don't find anything out of the ordinary. Since I'll be making decent money as a nurse, we of course won't qualify for CSHCS at that time to pick up what insurance won't cover...

There is a move afoot to move the income cap for CSHCS (in CA, we call this program California Children Services, or CCS) from $40K to $100K. Interestingly, in the 1980s, when $100K went a lot farther than it does now, the level was bumped down to $40. However, even if it stays at $40, you may be ok, because there is also a waiver for families for whom the expenses would exceed 20& of annual income. So hopefully, your daughter's expenses will still be covered without great financial hardship to your family. And more hopefully, the income cap will be returned to something more practical for families of children with catastrophic medical expenses.

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