My wife and I are expecting our first child and the OB office asked us to prepay our portion of the hospital medical bills. Prepay for medical services when you have insurance? That is ludicrous. Why would I have to prepay for service that have not yet been rendered? Because the OB office wants to hedge their risk and make sure they get their money.
So I called the insurance company and asked them if there is anything in my policy that requires me to pay for any services and just as I thought, nothing. Then I called the OB office and talked to their finance person and told them that we would not be prepaying for anything, and all the charges have to be ran through the insurance first. To my surprise they did not push back much except saying that this has always been our policy. You will get to know me, I do not care too much about policies that are made up to favor the business and screw the customer. The problem with prepaying your medical bill is that when everything is ran through the insurance you could actually owe a lot less, do you really think the provider is going to send you a check back because you overpaid, NO!
So the OB suggested that we should pre-register for the deliver so when you check in the day of delivery you are not bombarded with a ton of paper work. Thinking nothing of it we did. Then we get a bill in the mail from the hospital asking us to prepay for the hospital portion of the estimated charges. WOW! It was over a $1000 and that is stupid because what happens if for some reason you do not end up delivering at that hospital. Are they going to send you a check back, Hell NO!
If your OB office doesn't give you a break you can always negotiate the terms of payment and the actual amount.
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