5 ms·

A hospital charged a woman $39.35 for “Skin to Skin” after a C-section (2016)

11 points by chenster 10y ago

sorokod 10y ago
How did the hospital come up with that number, i wonder. Why not 98.99 for example?
devoply 10y ago
11,000 to have a baby, I could buy a decent used car for that.
- johan_larson 10y ago
  $250,000 was the total cost I saw somewhere to raise a child to adulthood. So $11,000 is just the beginning.
  - devoply 10y ago
    it's about a mil for a child born today if you account for inflation. imagine having a million dollar baby. Imagine how luxurious your life can be without a child. https://www.todaysparent.com/family/million-dollar-babies/ https://www.todaysparent.com/family/million-dollar-babies/ "Ward pegs the all-in cost of raising a child to 18 in the U.S. at around $700,000, or closer to $900,000 to age 22, which is a more realistic picture for today’s families."
    - FLGMwt 10y ago
      It is interesting to see the numbers increase also because of the growing definition of "adulthood".
    - pottersbasilisk 10y ago
      It explains why people arent having kids for sure.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
itchyjunk 10y ago
This is a post from [2016] The hospital and various people working in the industry have explained the reasons. This story went out of proportions because everyone was busy being outraged and no one wanted an explanation. The father himself tried to calm people down by saying he wasn't outraged and he doesn't find it unreasonable but that too was ignored by some media outlets. “During a caesarean, many people become shaky, nauseous, uncomfortable, even faint. These are normal physiological reactions. In order to facilitate skin to skin in the OR, an extra nurse needs to be available to assist. And before people scream that ‘there’s a nurse for the baby’, there is, but that nurse has other responsibilities in the OR. They aren’t either holding the baby or twiddling their thumbs. So yes, an extra nurse is needed.” [0] “Only in the case of a C-section birth is an additional nurse brought into the operating room,” the statement said. [1] ----------------------------- [0]https://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-you-might-get-charged-for-skin-to-skin-after-a-c-section/ https://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-you-might-get-c... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/business/how-much-is-it-worth-to-hold-your-newborn-40-apparently.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/business/how-much-is-it-w...
- vorotato 10y ago
  In short, it's passing the buck for having the nurse handle more responsibilities than is reasonable, and not hiring enough nurses.
- nuovoanno 10y ago
  In most (?) European countries giving birth is completely free, there is no bill that you have to pay at all; with or without c-section and independently from the number of nurses and/or doctors that are assisting you
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    It's not free, it's covered by either taxes in countries with a single payer system like the U.K. Or Franace or your mandatory insurance in countries without one like Germany or the Netherlands.
- 10y ago
tyingq 10y ago
A side effect of the crazy insurance system. It's a charge for the extra nurse, but the level of specificity required for billing doesn't allow for a normal line item like that. You would think, for example, that "contact with nonvenomous marine animal" was already crazy specific, and didn't need further breakdown, right? Nope. http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W56-/#W56.22 http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W56-/...
FLGMwt 10y ago
Billing in the US is insane. I know we're pretty adjusted to not knowing how much going to the doctor is going to take out of our wallet, but that's ridiculous considering how important to us that is just about everywhere else (e-commerce, Bank fees, phone bills). Can't find the reference, but I read that general practitioners barely even know how much they're going to be reimbursed for care. It takes their staff an average of three back and forths with the insurance company to settle on the "appropriate" coding and billing for anything of a "moderate complexity" visit or above. Shameless plug mode: My employer (Rally Health) has a provider search and cost transparency tool you can access if you have a UHC health plan at https://connect.werally.com https://connect.werally.com . It has uses information about your plan to estimate cost for procedures and even multi-stage treatments. To be fair this doesn't really solve the problem of unnecessary complexity behind the scenes of healthcare which are actually responsible for driving up costs, but it does help consumers in the current state of things.

11 points by chenster 10y ago

sorokod 10y ago

How did the hospital come up with that number, i wonder. Why not 98.99 for example?

devoply 10y ago

11,000 to have a baby, I could buy a decent used car for that.

johan_larson 10y ago
$250,000 was the total cost I saw somewhere to raise a child to adulthood. So $11,000 is just the beginning.
- devoply 10y ago
  it's about a mil for a child born today if you account for inflation. imagine having a million dollar baby. Imagine how luxurious your life can be without a child. https://www.todaysparent.com/family/million-dollar-babies/ https://www.todaysparent.com/family/million-dollar-babies/ "Ward pegs the all-in cost of raising a child to 18 in the U.S. at around $700,000, or closer to $900,000 to age 22, which is a more realistic picture for today’s families."
  - FLGMwt 10y ago
    It is interesting to see the numbers increase also because of the growing definition of "adulthood".
  - pottersbasilisk 10y ago
    It explains why people arent having kids for sure.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

itchyjunk 10y ago

This is a post from [2016] The hospital and various people working in the industry have explained the reasons. This story went out of proportions because everyone was busy being outraged and no one wanted an explanation. The father himself tried to calm people down by saying he wasn't outraged and he doesn't find it unreasonable but that too was ignored by some media outlets. “During a caesarean, many people become shaky, nauseous, uncomfortable, even faint. These are normal physiological reactions. In order to facilitate skin to skin in the OR, an extra nurse needs to be available to assist. And before people scream that ‘there’s a nurse for the baby’, there is, but that nurse has other responsibilities in the OR. They aren’t either holding the baby or twiddling their thumbs. So yes, an extra nurse is needed.” [0] “Only in the case of a C-section birth is an additional nurse brought into the operating room,” the statement said. [1] ----------------------------- [0]https://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-you-might-get-charged-for-skin-to-skin-after-a-c-section/ https://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/why-you-might-get-c... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/business/how-much-is-it-worth-to-hold-your-newborn-40-apparently.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/business/how-much-is-it-w...

vorotato 10y ago
In short, it's passing the buck for having the nurse handle more responsibilities than is reasonable, and not hiring enough nurses.
nuovoanno 10y ago
In most (?) European countries giving birth is completely free, there is no bill that you have to pay at all; with or without c-section and independently from the number of nurses and/or doctors that are assisting you
- dogma1138 10y ago
  It's not free, it's covered by either taxes in countries with a single payer system like the U.K. Or Franace or your mandatory insurance in countries without one like Germany or the Netherlands.
10y ago

tyingq 10y ago

A side effect of the crazy insurance system. It's a charge for the extra nurse, but the level of specificity required for billing doesn't allow for a normal line item like that. You would think, for example, that "contact with nonvenomous marine animal" was already crazy specific, and didn't need further breakdown, right? Nope. http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W56-/#W56.22 http://www.icd10data.com/ICD10CM/Codes/V00-Y99/W50-W64/W56-/...

FLGMwt 10y ago

Billing in the US is insane. I know we're pretty adjusted to not knowing how much going to the doctor is going to take out of our wallet, but that's ridiculous considering how important to us that is just about everywhere else (e-commerce, Bank fees, phone bills). Can't find the reference, but I read that general practitioners barely even know how much they're going to be reimbursed for care. It takes their staff an average of three back and forths with the insurance company to settle on the "appropriate" coding and billing for anything of a "moderate complexity" visit or above. Shameless plug mode: My employer (Rally Health) has a provider search and cost transparency tool you can access if you have a UHC health plan at https://connect.werally.com https://connect.werally.com . It has uses information about your plan to estimate cost for procedures and even multi-stage treatments. To be fair this doesn't really solve the problem of unnecessary complexity behind the scenes of healthcare which are actually responsible for driving up costs, but it does help consumers in the current state of things.