A hospital hiked the price of a routine childbirth by calling it an 'emergency'

Lol, I think they just routinely double everything at the beginning of each new month.

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."The takeaway: Anything in our health system labeled as an emergency room service likely comes with a big additional charge.

Data from the Colorado Division of Insurance shows that Poudre Valley typically received about $12,000 for similar births in 2020 — about 43% more than the typical Colorado hospital. So the more than $14,000 Wells Salerno and her insurer paid is very high.

Expectant parents should be aware that OB-EDs are a relatively new feature at some hospitals. Ask whether your hospital has that kind of charge and how it will affect your bill. Ahead of time, ask both the hospital and your insurer how much the birth is expected to cost. In Colorado, the Center for Improving Value in Health Care offers a price comparison tool for common medical procedures, including vaginal delivery.

If you do require a genuine ER encounter, look at your bill to see how it was coded, Levels 1 to 5 — and protest if your visit was misrepresented. Ask "Has this bill been upcoded?" You are the only one who knows how much time you spent with a medical provider and how much care was given and where. Here's a chart that will help with the proper definition of each level.

Know that victory is possible. At least one mom won the battle and got the emergency charge removed from her Poudre Valley Hospital birth bill. To make that happen she had to put in hours on the phone with UCHealth, have a lot of confidence and had to emphasize to everyone she spoke with that an emergency charge for a routine delivery just didn't — and doesn't — make sense.

Bill of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by NPR and Kaiser Health News that dissects and explains medical bills. Do you have an interesting medical bill you want to share with us? Tell us about it!"