How Do I Get “Baby Bargains for Clothes, Furniture, Toys and More?

As I stated last week, it is my goal to post every Monday. However, today, Oct 6th I am currently at the hospital either in the middle of the birth of my baby boy or looking at Gabriel Ethan for the first time.  I wrote this posting in advance and to publish today. I think the topic is fitting: hospital bills for the birth of your baby. A few days from now we will be receiving a bill in the mail for the balance due AFTER insurance.  To be quite honest, this was one of the biggest financial surprises after our first son was born. During the months leading up to his birth, we met with the OB and were shown the estimated cost of prenatal care and delivery for both vaginal and c-section. They looked at my wife’s insurance deductible left for the year, the 20% coinsurance we were responsible for after the deductible was met and came up with a fairly substantial number. This was divided into monthly payments and was to be paid in full prior to delivery. In all of our excitement, not fully understanding every paper we signed, we thought that once that was paid we were free and clear. We would go have our baby and come home without any of that financial mess hanging over our heads. Much to our surprise, that was only for the OB side of the care.

Several days after the birth of our first son we received a bill, a rather large bill, for our portion of the hospital charges, another bill from the anesthesiologist, and another from the pediatrician that visits the hospital to examine the baby every day until discharge.  I guess we thought this was included in everything we had prepaid.  We got this large bill with a due date within 30 days, having already used a large portion of our income to prepay the OB we weren’t left with much. Financial panic, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m the macho guy, the provider, and somehow I missed this and we didn’t have the money to pay it. Now what?

My first step was to pick up the phone and get an itemized bill so I could see where in the world this large number came from.  We also requested information on some type of a payment plan or financial aid from the hospital. When the itemized bill came in I was amazed at the charges…delivery room fees, 1 hour recovery fee, overnight room fee, various tubing, $8.80 for ibuprofen, $1.60 for each vitamin, and on and on. The most interesting thing were the charges for things I knew we had NEVER received. We were able to call and get some of these charges removed. There were probably more, but I just didn’t know what everything was. According to maternityadvantage.com more than 90% of hospital bills have errors.

This time, we are better prepared in the coming days to receive another bill. We also know to get an itemized copy to find the errors. So all you mommy and daddy savers out there looking for baby bargains, don’t overlook the hospital bill. Find the mistakes and get them removed.

If you want to be notified when our Guide to the Best Baby Bargains is available please send an email to josh@mommydaddysavers.com

Tags: Baby Bargains, hospital bills

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