If your wife wasn’t the patient - then where do they get off expecting her to pay for the two ultrasounds? The hospital should send the bill to these other “human beings”.
Maybe things were different 26 years ago, but I didn’t have any ultrasounds. I asked my doctor about it, and he said unless we wanted to know the baby’s sex, he didn’t bother with them. Suited me just fine, too. The fewer doctor visits, the better, as far as I’m concerned.
I guess that old ‘two can live as cheaply as one’ doesn’t apply here.
It surely is, if you sign up for it.
And as a family member of a burn victim, my thanks to everyone who donates!
Now it’s part of the screening for abnormalities, since the nuchal fold measurement they take at 12 weeks is yet another way they can tell if your baby is higher risk for Down’s syndrome. For me, they did a preliminary blood test first, then the 12 week screen, then a more full blood panel, and then the anatomy scan where they measure everything from the lenses in the eyes to the ventricles in the brain. From that they can detect things like spina bifida and any other remotely obvious anatomical abnormalities.
That way,they can assess your risks and only do an amnio if something shows up as a potential problem.
Username/post combo nomination.
Stuff like this is why I want to punch anyone in the face who opposes health care reform.
And I never saw it coming!:smack:
It was the day after his first birthday. The doctors told us that with kids that young, just a moment of contact can cause a severe burn.
Ah- that also makes sense for even a long moment- kid is still learning what sensation comes from what body part…
Sorry!
Actually, I can see a twin ultrasound as being more than double the work. You not only have to assess two babies but you have to make sure that both are doing well, that they aren’t conjoined, that they are growing equally etc. I think a twin ultrasound should probably pay at least 50% more than a single one as I suspect it takes pretty much twice as long, and the costs for technician time would be doubled.
In my wife’s experience it was marginally more work than with one. Not enough to warrant a double charge, especially because it is essentially the same overhead and the technicians time is booked anyway.
Technician: “Mrs. china guy, that’s your baby right there”
Mrs China guy: “Wierd, I feel something over here.”
5 seconds
Technician: “Congratulations Mrs China guy on twins.”
Frylock - not to make you nervous or anything but twins *are *high risk. Please take care of yourself and take all the recommend precautions no matter how over the top they may seem.
Yes… we were going to do a home birth but upon discovering that we have a Baby A and a Baby B on our hands we switched to hospital mode.
It helps if you go to a non-profit hospital, because they’re required as part of that non-profit status to do a certain amount of charity care, writing off unpaid bills, that kind of thing. Where I work (at a non-profit), the hospital will start by writing off half of a non-insured person’s bill, and from there get them to a staffer who handles things like Medicare/Medicaid/etc., should you qualify, plus then deal with other write-offs that can be done, and set up an as-able payment plan.
I recently had to return for a second “baseline” mammogram, and they did it no charge. They had sub-par imaging on the baseline at certain angles, and it turns out it was just a quirk of my anatomy that they couldn’t get a better scan the first time. So it’s nice that even though it’s technically my “fault” they’re not going to charge for a second scan.
Also, most hospitals, even for-profit ones, have donated funds to help uninsured people who can’t pay. When my daughter-in-law was in Cedar-Sinai in LA (the hospital to the stars) after my son died, she didn’t pay anything. The fund paid her entire bill.
:mad:
I’d consider reporting him to whatever medical authorities might take an interest - while you haven’t been harmed, insurance fraud sounds pretty likely. Bastard. I’d bet he’s an owner of the facility, right?
I’d suggest that if you DO need other ultrasounds, go with a different provider.
I think that what doctors bill, and what they really expect to get, are in two COMPLETELY different universes. The in-network rate winds up being as little as 10 PERCENT of what the doctor / hospital bill for the services. Labs are even smaller. I understand negotiated, in-network rates, but the inflated “rack” rate has always seemed to be a scam to me.
I’ve also seen some pretty wild bills recently, as in out of line for what was provided. I broke my foot recently. Saw the EOB from the insurance company for the ortho visit. X-ray. Air-cast. Crutches. All so far so good. Then: 600 BUCKS for SURGERY???
Um, no, I didn’t have surgery. Do I report that as possible fraud?
And, last spring I got a nebulizer. Rack rate for the thing, at Amazon or whatever, would be 200 or less. And that’s out of network so no insurance coverage. So I contacted a DME provider that is in-network. Negotiated rate 150ish, I pay them my 20%… and the only EOB I ever saw was asking the insurance company for 600 DOLLARS. Yeah, 600 dollars. More than TRIPLE the retail cost of the thing.
Interestingly on that: the EOB said “Out of network, doesn’t meet out-of-network deductible, patient owes it all”.
The DME provider has never asked me for any more money.
France, 2007: ultrasound, tech’s opinion, radiologist’s opinion, ER doc’s opinion, 42€. There was nothing to measure, though.
In Spain if the baby is in a difficult position, they just reschedule; time is the bottleneck resource, they can’t give everybody who’s scheduled a 1h+ delay because one baby was back-on. I have no idea what kind of measurements they take, all I’ve ever heard is length.
Congratulations! How far along is your wife?
Cripes, I’m glad I’m in Canada. We’re having twins, too, and I’ve got ultrasounds every three weeks for the whole pregnancy. We could never afford it, in the States.
Speaking of insurance fraud, my sister (a nurse) delivered her 3rd son at the hospital where she worked. In a hallway. All three of her deliveries went rapidly, but with her third she just spit him out while laying on a gurney, into the hands of an OB nurse.
When she eventually got paperwork from her insurance company, she saw that they had paid the anesthesiologist, obstetrician, etc. They were people she worked with, it didn’t cost her a dime, so she never said a thing.
Hi everyone in SDMB land! I am unlurking to add my 2 (Canadian) cents on the topic as I am an ultrasound tech.
Twin obstetrical exams are absolutely more technically challenging and time consuming than ob scans for singletons. This is especially true for the 18 week detailed exam. At the detailed assessment we are not only measuring your baby but looking through the entire fetus from (literally) the top of the head to the head to the bottom of the feet. We are not just waving a gel covered probe around in a random way but we are trying to get the most diagnostic pictures of the spine, heart, brain, etc. etc.
With twins you have to do the detailed exam on two fetuses while making sure to keep each one straight in your head (even though most twins have a membrane between them, that thing is flimsy! It’s not too difficult to mistake the leg of one for the other if you’re not being careful). Also there are complications that can occur just because it is a twin pregnancy – conjoining, twin to twin transfusion, small for gestational age, etc.
Where I work we do book double time spots for twin exams (past the first trimester) and charge accordingly. I Luckily I am in Canada so government health care covers the cost. Sucks that in the US patients are stuck with the bill, but I guess that’s how it is.
With all that being said, congrats on the twins Frylock and I hope all goes well with the pregnancy!
My pregnant mare had two ultrasounds by the time she was 1 month along, and at 3 months I’m waiting for the vet to come out and do a third. Each ultrasound (including the charge to come to my farm) costs $65 ($40 farm call, $25 ultrasound). And she e-mails me pics of the ultrasound.
StG