Now that you’ve got diapers to buy, here’s what to watch out for and resources if you’d prefer to avoid unnecessary charges
Photo: ArtisticCaptures/Getty Images Dealing with your hospital bills after childbirth could be compared to delivering a baby all over again. If that sounds like a stretch, consider the parallels: Despite careful planning, you can’t possibly anticipate all the details. You will be confused by jargon. You will encounter deeply troubling aspects of our medical system. You will be overwhelmed. You will hear about how they “do it better in Europe.
Here’s how these bills work: Hospitals have a list of fixed prices for their services called the “chargemaster.” Whoever made up that absurd name for it had a good sense of humor, because the numbers are equally ridiculous, sometimes marked up to more than three times the procedure’s actual cost. That rate is what shows up on your bill and scares the pants right off of you.
So, given that amorphous lack of information, how can you make smart decisions before and during childbirth that are best for your health and your baby’s without getting slapped with mysterious and unnecessary charges? Are you supposed to wave around your health-insurance card between contractions and make sure everything is covered before it happens? If a nurse hands you a Dixie cup with pills in it, do you demand to know the price tag on each...
And finally, if you’re medically low-risk, it’s worth looking into non-hospital alternatives, says Sakala. “We strongly encourage healthy women to consider a birth center instead of a hospital ward because the costs are much lower, they’re less procedure-intensive, and there’s a high degree of patient satisfaction,” she says. “Research has shown amazing results from birth centers, and they offer a much better return on investment for everyone involved.