Is it normal for OB office to charge estimated cost for childbirth before the baby is even born?

Question

My doctor's office is sending me Bill's for my estimated portion of the bill for my labor, but I find this extremely weird since I am 4 months out from having my baby, and they have no idea what kind of labor I'll have or anything. I'm reluctant to pay until I have the kid and know the real charges, because if I have the baby early, my deductible is already met, and I should owe nothing for the birth, and I highly doubt they'll want to give me a refund if that happens.
Also, if this is in the wrong group, please point me the right way.

Answer

I don’t get anything tell after my insurance pays. I payed nothing for my delivery.  My insurance payed it all.

Answer

I pay nothing until it goes through my insurance. You don’t know what they will cover and what they won’t.

Answer

My drs office sits me down after my first or second appointment and goes over the cost and gives me the option to do payments. 
With my daughter I ended up getting a refund check. That was a nice little surprise. They hardly had to do anything when I was in labor with her. I wasn’t hooked up to iv. I didn’t get pain meds  I didn’t have an epidural. I only pushed 3 times. I labored with only my husband, the nurse checked me like two times  I’m assuming that’s why I got a refund.

Answer

my office bills insurance for 9 months worth of prenatal care and estimated cost based on the average pregnancy. think i owes like 900, nothing crazy. i just paid it off in like 4 payments i think. i don’t think it’s abnormal and i honestly prefer it that way so i know what i owe right away. the only other thing i paid for was some non stress tests which was like $60.

Answer

This is how my office bills as well I paid and estimated cost and my deductible was met by the time I had daughter so I got a refund check from them.

Answer

This seems a bit premature.  I’ve never gotten this and this is my third pregnancy.  I always wait until the bill goes through my insurance before paying because you never know how much insurance will/won’t cover.  I also don’t like paying for services that haven’t been rendered yet.  Refund checks are great but it can be a pain sometimes if it’s not automatically issued and you have to pester the provider/hospital.  Maybe it’s just to give you an idea on cost and if you want to get a payment plan set up you can?

Answer

Mine hasn’t sent me a bill yet at 24 weeks and I wouldn’t pay for a service not yet rendered unless I absolutely had to or got a steep discount that way.

Answer

Everyone I've known has had to pay a "down payment" for their doctors portion for their delivery. I've had 3 previous unrelated surgeries where I had to pay before hand too even tho things could have changed in surgery. It's extremely common. They usually give you as much as a head start as possible and give you until 20 weeks to pay it.

Answer

With my last insurance the doctors office gave me the option to pay it all up front or to wait until the baby is born. I didn’t pay it because I was moving out of town and wasn’t even going to have the baby at their office. With my current insurance (better than my last. Covers more). They haven’t charged me yet or said anything.

Answer

I actually just got a letter from my dr with this same thing. I’ll definitely be taking it to my next appointment to ask..i was caught off guard since I’m only 13 weeks

Is it normal for OB office to charge estimated cost for childbirth before the baby is even born?

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