Out of Pocket costs for Private Hospital - CONFUSED!?

[lalosophy]

Hi there,

I'm all new to this. I have private health insurance, top extras and top hospital cover. I am unsure about out of pocket costs? I assumed that since my health insurance has an 'agreement' with the hospital (I found the hospital on a list on the health insurance website), that it means there will be no out-of-pocket costs, especially since I am on the top cover and apparently have 'no excess'.

Will there be an 'excess' and if so approximately how much? I am hoping to have as natural a labor as possible.

Cheers, and thanks in advance for any advice for this stumped newbie!

:kickme:

[biscotti]

Your out of pocket expenses will be more to do with visiting your Ob during your pregnancy and paying his/her management fee and possibly any scans or tests you might have.

I had top MBF cover and all my hospital and birth costs were covered, hope that helps, cheers :)

[lalosophy]

Thanks,
I have been going to a public hospital for check ups and don't have an obstetrician yet.... I probably left it a bit late...

Also, I'm with Teachers Federation Health fund, which are pretty good I've heard, so hopefully all goes well when I finally get an OB.....

Cheers!

[Kooglekat]

Hi there,

I have just received the statment in the mail from my delivery in a private hospital.

I had a vaginal birth with no pain relief.

We paid $100 excess before admission. The total account was about $5700, all but $99 was invoiced to my health insurance company. (this was pharmacy, parking etc)

Obviously the OB fees are separate and we paid a management fee at 24 weeks and fees for each appointment. We qualified for the medicare safely net so got quite a bit of the visits back, but only about $500 of the management fee back.

I believe the only other cost from hospital will be an account from the paed.

Hope that is some help to you!

[trishalishous]

I was a private patient in a public hospital (only choice here) and my covered fees (for 2 weeks) were:
private room& DHs bed/food $ 4200
obs fees for a complicated VB (no drugs) $1000 (no management charged as I only saw this ob from 33 weeks, due to complications (i had 2 bleeds and had previously miscarried one twin)
I had a d&c for retained placenta, but that was medicare covered 100%
mbf didn't charge me an excess :)
so I was out of pocket for $0

[lysha]

Hi there, I'm on the top HBF cover and the only out of pocket expenses for both my boys was $200 excess before admission (I don't remember having to pay this with first DS though...) a $1000 management fee to my ob and then the first 4 nights for both me and hubby to stay as a boarder were covered.. Plus I had to pay the anaestheologist fees too for an epidural.. With DS1 I required 2 because the first one wasn't inserted properly - I had 2 different dr's because they changed shifts.. 1st dr was free and the 2nd cost me $400.. I rang the hospital to complain because I thought with top cover it would have been covered (and at my pre-admission appt I was told epidural was included - only to later find out this meant the drugs only!) but it wasn't.. I was told that at my hospital SJOG Subi (perth) that 88% of the Dr's doing epidurals only charged you HBF rate leaving no gap - so I definitely lucked out with the 2nd one!

My only advice is that each hospital is different and the best people to approach are the staff in the pre-admission centre of your chosen hospital.

My bill at the end of my stay was around $5500 and I paid $1600 out of pocket on top of this. Plus obstetrician appointments and scans, but I got a lot of those back from medicare!

Hope that helps a little... I'm still confused this time around!

[Ruby Sneakers]

Hi there
I had a caesar so mine was a little bit more expensive but my out of pocket expenses from the hospy were only our Anethetist and even then it was only the gap of $200(no Medicare rebate) the paedetrician who was around $700 ($100 after medicare) and my bloods (have no idea why these were not covered but apparently it's a private testing centre.... Very confusing) of around $150 ($70 OFP after Medicare and private health)

R also needed a hip ultrasound at 6 weeks due to being breech my whole pregnancy but that was bulk billed

I was over the safety net for these rebates - HTH a bit hun (oh this was in the Townsville Private with defence health but just to give u more of an idea :) )