New Mom Reveals How Much Of Her Newborn Daughter’s $700K Hospital Bill Her Health Insurance Actually Covers
Unsurprisingly, insurance is leaving a sizable amount of the bill behind for her to pay for.
Arsenii Palivoda | Shutterstock It’s no secret that healthcare costs are out of control, particularly in the United States. Stories of people receiving outrageous bills for care and people being denied coverage for basic needs have become commonplace.
One mom found herself in this exact situation after giving birth to a daughter who experienced some health complications. A stay in the NICU was a necessity, one that her insurance company wasn't willing to cover, however.
A mom received a bill for her daughter’s NICU stay that totaled over $700,000.
New mom Janice Hernandez shared the bill she got for her newborn daughter’s medical care. “I just got the bill for my daughter’s NICU stay,” she said. “Do you guys wanna know how much it is?” Hernandez then showed the bill on camera, which came in at a total of $738,360. “Almost a million dollars,” she said.
Hernandez was understandably shocked and decided to take a closer look at the bill to try to understand what was going on. “And then I decided to take a look through the itemized bill because they sent every single little thing that they charged for,” she explained. “And I swear there’s things that they didn’t do, and I swear there’s things that they’re overcharging for.”
As an example, Hernandez used a tube of Aquaphor. “$25 for a tiny tube of Aquaphor that I thought the nurse was giving me just to be cute, and … give it for free,” she stated. “No, ma’am. They made sure to charge every single little thing.”
In another video, the mom shared how much of the bill she would be responsible for.
“We have an update from my daughter’s NICU hospital stay that cost almost a million dollars,” she shared in a follow-up video. “We are gonna go over what is on the insurance and what they cover.”
“It’s not fully covered, guys!” she announced. Hernandez then showed the updated paperwork she had received from her insurance company.
“This is what we got billed in the first place,” she said, pointing to an amount of $739,416. “This is what insurance is covering,” she continued, referring to a second amount of $442,218.75. “And this is not payable by insurance,” she concluded, showing the camera an amount of $302,741.51. “They don’t know if they’re gonna be able to cover it yet,” she said. “It literally says ‘pending or not payable charges that are either not covered or need more review by us.’”
“So, the investigation continues, guys!” Hernandez said through nervous laughter.
Practices like this are not uncommon for health insurance companies.
Unfortunately, Hernandez’s story is not unique. Plenty of people share their stories of being overcharged for healthcare and then being responsible for far too much of that bill, thanks to their insurance company.
Finance expert Michael Ryan told Newsweek, “The opacity of hospital pricing creates an environment where patients have zero negotiating power. Unlike any other major purchase in our lives, new parents can’t shop around for NICU care when their newborn needs immediate medical attention.”
Hernandez also spoke to Newsweek and explained that her daughter is insured through her husband’s employer, and her husband makes just $100 over the poverty limit, meaning Medicaid is not an option.
Mikhail Nilov | Pexels
Hernandez’s daughter was diagnosed with Prader-Willi syndrome, a genetic disorder, which means there is no end to their medical bills in sight. “I’ve built up insane amounts of debt paying for all my high-risk pregnancy appointments and her specialty care appointments now that she’s born,” Hernandez told Newsweek. “I’ve just been paying with credit since we can’t afford all the appointments.”
According to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, the average American spends $12,555 on healthcare each year. The “comparable country average,” calculated based on healthcare costs in countries similar to the U.S., is $6,651. Clearly, something is wrong in the United States. The healthcare system is broken. The question is, is it too far gone to be fixed?
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.