Payment for delivery upfront? Is this normal?

Question

Is your OB office making for pay for the delivery upfront? I had my first appointment today (honestly useless...no ultrasound or testing done, didn’t get to see the doctor, and everything the nurse told me my fertility clinic had already gone over) and they said they want payment for the delivery next week, but I’m not due until October 2?! That seems really odd to me...we have insurance, and a lot can happen in the next 6 months or so. What if we switch OBs or move? What if something happens to the baby and we don’t even get to a delivery?
I’m just trying to understand if this is normal or not...no other doctor makes you pay for services up front...

Answer

I’ve never paid upfront. The only thing I paid for were labs and maybe an ultrasound. But the doctor’s bill, no.

Answer

I would switch offices.. that’s crazy!!

Answer

At my doctors office, you don’t pay anything related to the birth until after. I do pay for visits between now and then as soon as I’m billed. They offer plans for paying after birth but not before because you never know how your birth is going to go. The billing does breakdown costs and shows you estimates of how much you can expect to pay.

Answer

I had my first appointment today and they had us meet the financial advisor first before seeing the nurse or having the ultrasound. She showed me the breakdown after my insurance and the total cost with the monthly payment required. Paying in full was an option, but not a requirement. We did ask what happens if something goes wrong and you don’t deliver and they told us as you make the payments, it goes into a “bank” and if something happens, they will refund you anything that had not already been charged.

Answer

That’s how it was with my first, and like others have mentioned they treat it like an ‘account’ and may charge more after, or you may get a refund. I wanna say we paid around $2500, and it was due within like the first 3 months of pregnancy, but I actually got a refund check for $800 from my OB about a month after I delivered, so that was a nice surprise. 
And that’s just the doctor, if your delivering in a hospital you’ll need to pay them as well. I didn’t realize that, I got a call about a month before my due date from the hospital stating we needed to pay another $1200 or so before we would even be admitted. I will say as much as I freaked out then, there was lots of crying lol. Idk how I would have reacted if they presented the bill to me in my room with a brand new baby hours after delivery like some ladies are saying they had happen 😳

Answer

That sounds odd. I would go elsewhere. How do they know what your insurance will cover? What if you get a secondary insurance before then? Or don’t end up using them? They you have to fight to get your money back.
My doctors office doesn’t bill me for ANYTHING until delivery. No appointments, no blood draws, nothing.

Answer

Just an FYI - there is a physician (doctor) portion of the bill for delivery as well as a hospital portion. So what's being asked right now is likely just that physician part. You also will likely (depending on your specific insurance coverage) have a separate bill, both doctor and hospital, for the baby once they are born. The doctors office can get an idea based on their contract with your insurance company what an average pregnancy (prenatal visits, delivery and post natal visits) coverage will be and what they've agreed to accept from that insurance company as payment. Those things are generally billed in one group (code). But, under certain circumstances there may be other codes too (more visits than average, complications, another physician outside that group delivers, etc).
Mainly just a heads up that there will be other charges too. Neither of my experiences have requested pre payment for delivery ahead of time. It's not uncommon, but generally you can also set up a payment plan after delivery and achieve the same result of spreading some of it out if necessary. Especially if you're planning on using HSA/FSA funds to pay and maybe you haven't received those payments into your account yet!

Answer

I have a high deductible so my ob office required $2,500 up front. I could have split it up into 9 payments but I just paid it all so I didn’t have to worry about paying it every month. Thank you tax return 😂

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I have heard of that before, but my office doesn’t not require it. I have mostly heard of it when people don’t have insurance. I would never agree to it because I use a FSA card to pay for my healthcare stuff, and I am sure you can’t use that for something that technically hasn’t even happened yet.

Answer

I was told this is new that insurances are requiring now. I've been seeing the same ob and they just started this. Mine doesn't cover hospital stay or anesthesia stuff like that.

Payment for delivery upfront? Is this normal?

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