Hospital bills for Hearing Screening Test!

[papal]

I feel like I should not be complaining since insurance paid for 100% of maternity benefits (i paid a grand total of $10) for pre-natal, l&d and hospital stay). But the one thing I did not anticipate was the Newborn Hearing Screening Test that they did on Leela when we were in the hospital. When we got the hospital tour they kind of glossed over it saying that they would be taking the baby to the nursery to bathe her and give her the Vitamin K shot and other stuff that all babies have to get. And we are allowed to accompany the baby for all these things. So when they came into our room and said it was time to take the baby for the Newborn Hearing Screening Test, dh went along with the doctor. Nothing against the test, I would definitely have got it done but now they send us a bill for it (about $150) and insurance says that it is not covered.
I wish the hospital would give a list of procedures that will be done on the baby so we can call insurance and find out what is covered and what is not. I actually did call them before the delivery to find out what is covered if the baby has to go to NICU (which luckily Leela did not have to go to), what happens if the doctor giving the epidural is not in the plan (which unfortunately i was not able to get anyway..baby came out too fast!) and about babys stay in the nursery. I did not know to ask about the Hearing Test.

Anyway.. just thought I would vent!
Did any of you face anything similar with hospital bills?

[nitaghei]

Our insurance (which isn't the greatest - Maryland state employees) covered the hearing test. In fact, Neel got it done twice - first at birth, and then at the end of the NICU stay.

I would ask to speak with someone higher up in the heirarchy. And if it's a plan that falls under ERISA you might have other recourse. Just keep pushing - I spent months fighting insurance over what was covered and what wasn't - and they eventually paid for everything. I won't go into details - it's a rant in itself!

It does seem odd that they won't cover the hearing test - it's pretty standard. Insurance companies seem to try to weasel out of lots of stuff - the key is to be persistent. You just might need an extra piece of paper that wasn't filed - if you have an HMO or POS plan.

You have my sympathy!

Nita
mom to Neel 01/05/03
dog mom to a cocker and a PWD

[Momof3Labs]

That's interesting. The hearing screen is standard (a law, perhaps?) in Illinois, so that would be a reason to fight if you were here. Have you spoken to your insurance company? Ours makes "mistakes" all the time, and pays almost everything we ask them to reconsider.

My epi was administered by an out-of-network doctor (which, of course, I didn't know until months later) and I was billed for a good chunk, but fortunately our secondary insurance picked up the balance. I know someone whose baby spent a week in the NICU, and she later found out that the NICU was out of network (even though the hospital was in network) and they wanted her to pay the whole bill herself! She fought that one and won, by the way.

On a side note, I went to the ER recently for a fall down the stairs and they charged us $172 for an ace bandage to wrap around my knee. Unbelievable, huh??

[papal]

So i call the insurance company (again!) and it seems what happened is that the hearing test goes towards the deductible (i never could understand this deductible concept!) and since Leela has not met her individual deductible of $450, we have to pay the bill. I guess that makes some sense, right?

BUT, now to vent about Well Child Visits. Apparently, the ped can bill it only ONCE while you are in hospital.. since I was there for 2 days and the ped dropped by on his rounds on both days, the first time i was charged nothing but the second time i was charged like $80. WHAT??? What kind of weird-ass policy is that?? The gal i spoke to at the insurance said that the peds cant keep billing Well Child Visits (unless its for immunizations) all the time. And then the ped told us to come for a follow-up visit after two days to the clinic (sounds like a well-child visit to me!) and that could was billed as a sick-vist too! (Luckily office visits only have a co-pay of $10). Since she had a spot of jaundice we were told to come back in 2 days and once again charged for a sick (not well-child visit). Atleast one of these should have been a well-child visit (Leela was fine after 2 days). This stuff is made to confuse you i think! Everyone but the patients seem to benefit.. especially the docs! I like my ped but i dont like how they bill visits!!! arrghhh!!

$172 for a stinking bandage!!! Lori, that is terrible!!!

[amp]

Rashmi - In regard to the "well child visits". Our insurance does not pay for well child visits either, but all of the monitoring by the ped in the hospital was covered. I assume it's because it it required/mandatory to have him monitored until he is discharged. Unless this falls under the portion of your deductible that hasn't yet been paid, I would argue this one too. Because our hospital stay went from 5/29 - 6/2, the insurance completely confused the issue and tried to deny the visit from 6/1, claiming it was a well child visit. We appealed it on the basis that he was still *IN* the hospital and it *WAS NOT* a well child visit. They ended up paying it in full (after we met our deductible for DS.)

[stillplayswithbarbies]

My insurance counts the baby under me for the first 30 days, so anything the baby had done would count towards my deductible, not hers.

You might want to ask about that.

...Karen
Jacob Nathaniel Feb 91
Logan Elizabeth Mar 03

[McQ]

I got screwed with the Newborn Hearing Screening test too. But fortunately mine was only for $50, but still I don't think I should of had to pay for it. My insurance wouldn't cover it because the doctor submitted a procedure code, they needed a diagnosis code. The doctor refused to change the code saying it was unethical and that the diagnosis could be inferred by the name of the procedure - Newborn Hearing test (hence the test was conducted because he was a newborn). I even had both parties on a 3 way call and niether would budge. And I can't even submit and appeal to insurance because the doctor waited 8 months to bill me and insurance says I only have 6 months from the time of the denial. Sure I got an EOB months ago but never a bill so I didn't have anything to pay or dispute at the time. Things like this really make me mad. Sorry it happened to you too.

Allison
~ mommy to Declan 3.24.03