DC Trip: current medical bills

The HER Foundation presented a Congressional Briefing on Sept. 28, 2005.

Moderator: Kimber

DC Trip: current medical bills

Postby IslandDreamer » Aug 26, 2005 6:13 pm

Anyone willing to share their current medical bills? Perhaps for pgs in the last year? The idea here is to gather as much info as possible and show the costs of HG pgs. Currently, the CDC only counts HG cases where the mom is an IN-patient. Kimber is hoping to contrast those in-patient costs with costs of those who use the ER, homehealthcare, and meds, etc. Basically, current costs are needed to show the cost of an HG pg.

If you are willing to do this, can you fax your bills to her?
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Postby aaronsmommy » Aug 26, 2005 7:38 pm

I have a bunch of impressive bills, but they are all from 2002.

A hopsital bill for $115,000 (there should actually be two of about that much), a couple of home health bills for $8000-$12000 (but these ones are VERY confusing - and take up about 20 pages each).

I'm happy to forward them if she is interested.
Aimee

Aaron 12/4/02
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Postby IslandDreamer » Aug 26, 2005 7:51 pm

That is some impressive bill-age. I'll let Kimber know what folks have, but I'm sure she'd want your bill, Aimee. Actually, I mentioned that you had posted your grand total at one point...astounding. So glad you and little man are healthy and doing well.
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Postby mammaclare » Aug 26, 2005 10:51 pm

I am a nerd who saves everything, so I can grab my EOBs from 2003 if they would be useful. I dont' get pharmacy EOBs however, so the 8 months of Zofran therapy would not be reflected. With a calculator and a few minutes, I could come up with that cost, if someone knows the retail per tablet cost in 2003 for Zofran 4mg.

In today's retail cost (about $25 a pill), and estimating that I was on 32mgs for a couple months, 24 for a little bit, weaned to 12 and then back to 16...so this is VERY ballpark...I came up with about $27,000 in Zofran alone (wow--until this moment, I never realized that the one drug was more than the rest of everything for the PG combined!!!)

Okay, so my EOBs for the pregnancy, delivery and home health total $14574.39 (I think I am missing a big home health EOB, and an ER one too, however, so I will round that up to $18,000. My therapist I saw for the HG depression was an additional $2800.

How about totalling my pay stubs for the 16 weeks I was on STD in 1st and 2nd tri and the 3 weeks in 3rd tri (excluding the normal 6 wks postpartum) at 100% of my base salary? That would be around $22500 in "lost wages". (Praise God for a great company w/ great benefits!).

So, here we have almost $30K in pharmacy cost, $18K in medical cost, $3K in mental health cost, and $23K in lost wages. A grand prize of almost $75,000. Holy PUKE, Batman!

And I consider myself to have had only moderate HG. And was too chicken to get the PICC recommended to me, and also too afraid to try Vistaril on top of the Zofran. Had I really done what my docs wanted, it would have been even more.

Anyway, hope that aids in the data compilation.
Clare
Mommy to Rory Benjamin 8-28-03
And Kieran Alexander 12-15-06
HG Babies-Week 5 to The Bitter End!
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Postby nomore » Aug 27, 2005 10:57 am

Suzanne,

I posted a week or 2 ago about the cost of this pregnancy so far. I can find the link if you need... that cost was based off of what had been billed thus far to my insurance. (Its mostly just home nursing service, as my DR's office still hasnt billed yet. Also, it does not include the costs of the RXs we have filled (probably around $400 to this point), the hospital co-pays ($400 roughly so far for ER, in-patient and infusion center prior to the home nurse). Also, it doesnt include the $ we spent in prepping for this pregnancy (detox, accupunture, NAET- roughly $1500). (And, I got about another $1500 in free treatments for the prep, as the DR is a close friend of ours... our next door neighbor). Then, if you REALLY want to get to the heart of this, do you factor in the loss of my income for having to quit my job???? OR, the loss of income of my DH for taking some time of unpaid to care for me? The list could go on and on...lol

17 weeks and just glad Im feeling way more human than I did at this point with my 1st pregnancy. In the end, the cost of everything will have been WELL worth it.

Robin
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Postby IslandDreamer » Aug 27, 2005 11:07 am

Hi Robin,

I totally remember reading about your bills and was hoping you'd see this thread. Would you be willing to send copies of the bills (your name blacked out for privacy) to Kimber? Were you treated as an inpatient or all homehealthcare?
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Postby nomore » Aug 27, 2005 11:13 am

Sure, Id absolutely be willing to send what I have. Its basically a printout of whats been billed to my insurance co (Aetna) from their website (we have access to "manage" our insurance via the internet).

I am happy to say this pregancy I have had only 1 impatient stay for 1 night (I was 6 weeks and the ER said I was too dehydrated to go home). It was on a weekend, and my DR was already trying to set up the home care, but I "crashed" faster than he hoped. (I spent a couple weeks as an impatient with Madison)

Just let me know exactly what totals are needed and I'll get DH to copy the stuff and we will mail it right out.

Robin
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Postby IslandDreamer » Aug 27, 2005 11:22 am

Great. Thanks Robin. I'll ask Kimber where she wants stuff sent.
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Postby dwtegli » Aug 27, 2005 12:51 pm

Suzanne, I should be able to collect what my insurance company paid out for my pregnancy in 2005. I have yet to get rid of anything, so I would think I can find it all. It isn't the bills, but what the insurance company was billed, also add in my lost wages, and I can see where we are at, if she would like.
Wendy,
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Postby Ivydragon » Aug 31, 2005 5:31 pm

Suzanne,

I was just thinking you might also want to post this request in the 3rd trimester forums, and post partum forums - see if we can get some newly delivered Moms on this bandwagon.

Andy
Mom to Aaron 14 (HG), Anna 11 (HG), Adam 8 (adopted), Andrew 8 (adopted), fostering a newborn . . .
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Postby caty » Sep 01, 2005 9:06 pm

Do you want what the insurance has paid or what we've paid out of pocket, or both? I've been blessed with my insurance, but sometimes just what we've had to cough up (ie, ZOFRAN) have been a real burden. PLEASE let us know where to send you guys the info.

~Caty
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Postby k3tglazier » Sep 03, 2005 12:56 pm

I just got my EOB for the month of July and just for my zofran pump and home health care nurse it totaled about $34,000.00. But that is so far the only bill that I have actually gotten. I could go and print off my info from my insurance page but I am only 19.5 weeks so it would not be a grand total. Let me know if this would be helpful.

keri
Keri
3 X HG Survivor...surviving #4
ds........Jan 26, 2000
ds........June 15, 2002
dd........Dec 27, 2005
ds.........due 1/21/09 PICC line X 2 TPN, Zofran, dexamethazone, scopolamine
7 wks-???
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Postby jjbeck » Sep 16, 2005 4:24 pm

You may be able to get your EOBs online. I just got all of mine from my preg w/ Ava from start to finish and put them on Excel . I was also able to get a HX print out from rite aid.
Jen 34
HG X2

DH Bob
DD Ava 4/04
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Postby IslandDreamer » Sep 24, 2005 12:32 pm

It's still not too late to FAX your bills to Kimber. I've got the fax #, so PM me.
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