$1300 nursery bill?!?!

manna, BSN, RN · Feb 18, 2004

Do you have an itemized statement/bill or can you get one?

loriLPN · Feb 18, 2004

my bill states as follows:

1-2-04 pharmacy $493

1-2-04 pharmacy iv $19

1-2-04 supplies $993

12-31-03 delivery room $2185

1-2-04 room and board $5835

1-2-04 nursery $1325

1-2-04 laboratory $112

the gal at the billing counter is clueless...would they have to go over my records again?

fergus51 · Feb 18, 2004

Some hospitals charge for 24 hours of nursery as a minimum. It doesn't matter if the infant was there for 23 hours or 30 minutes.

Dayray, RN · Feb 19, 2004

My guess would be that the charge Is in part for the availability of nursery nurses and the equipment. It might seem unfair that you be charged for this but if your baby had needed extra care or had you sent them to the nursery all those things would have been there.

Also even though your baby was in the room with you and care was provided for them in your room, the nurse that assessed your baby and taught cord care, circ care, etc was a nursery nurse. It probably includes all the supplies that were needed for your baby as well.

There have been studies done and most post partum patients don't understand what postpartum and well baby nurses do. Many feel that the nurses are bothering them by waking them up and pushing on their fundus or taking their baby away. When you have a healthy mom and baby and don't have allot of need for education all the assessment might seem unnecessary. However the only way to detect problems is for nurses to assess mom and baby. It sounds like you and your baby were both healthy so these things may seem to have been a waste. However if things had been different and there was a problem the only way anyone would have know would have been threw those assessments.

Thats a hurendus bill! It's discussting how much healthcare costs but I don't think you were charged unfairly.

imenid37 · Feb 19, 2004

I agree w/ Dayray. I know our hospital charges for nursery even if baby rooms in w/ mom. We have a nursery charge sheet which we fill out for every baby. Maybe they should call them infant care charges or someting other than nursery. I have no idea what our hospital charges for baby care, but I am sure its not cheap!

L&D_RN_OH · Feb 20, 2004

Think that's bad. I delivered in a birth center. Baby never left my bed, let alone my room. :rolleyes: But there was still a standard nsy charge. Everything that was done for babe that would have been done in the Nsy, was done on the bed. But since it was all done, there is still a charge for Nsy care.

fiestynurse · Feb 24, 2004

Almost $11,000! Hospital costs have been rising at a rapid rate over the last few years - far above the CPI - so this is probably correct. However, I would ask for a more itemized bill, especially if you are a self paying patient. If you have insurance, the insurance company has negotiated a standard rate for lady partsl deliveries and this may not be what they are actually paying. Medicaide pays about 35% of the bill and other private insurances generally pay about 60-65% of the total bill. If you are self paying patient you pay for the whole enchilada!