Are all hospitals similar in price to have a baby?

[Ektremmy]

We had a child at lakeside and it was great, but expensive. Now we are thinking about more and I was wondering if other hospitals are cheaper. At lakeside, with an epidural, it was roughly $14K before insurance.

Is deaconess, mercy, or somewhere else cheaper? How would I even find out? Do hospitals give this information out?

[Celebrator]

If you aren't set on a hospital birth, try a birthing center (I know of at least two in the metro) or even a midwife so you can have your baby in the comfort of your own home--it is truly a great experience and WAAAAY less expensive--in fact you pay for it long before the birth and get prenatal and post care, too. Many even accept insurance.

[rezman]

Since there are a lot of people who cash pay these days, the hospitals should be able to ball park it for you. Since requirments differ from one expectant mother to the next, the cost will vary, and you won’t know what the total bill is until your home with your new baby.

[CloudDeckMedia]

Seeing all of the unpredictable things that can happen with labor & delivery, I wouldn’t recommend any place that didn’t have an emergency department and neonatal ICU. If things go south, price quickly becomes irrelevant. You might discuss price at the Children’s Hospital and one or two hospitals with NICUs near you.

[Urbanized]

^^^^^^^
Gotta say I agree with being somewhere close to emergency and neonatal unit. The idea of a home delivery by midwife sounds really great...until it isn’t. I’ve been doing tons of ancestry reasearch and have come across many, MANY “died in childbirth” and “infant so-and-so.” It’s sobering how something we take for granted today routinely resulted in death for the mother and/or the baby a little more than a century ago.

[bombermwc]

We had our kids at Mercy and at Lakeside. It's difficult for me to gauge the difference because at Mercy it was premie twins so there was NICU time involved. But Lakeside's bill didn't seem ridiculous to me at all. What pissed me off more than anything was that the pediatrician was part of a group and not an employee of the facility. He used the WORST billing company ever (same one the NICU Pediatrician at Mercy used) out of Arizona. So if i had any suggestion, i'd do some checking on facilities that consolidate their services so there are fewer unexpected "group" bills later, like anesthesia, pediatrician, radiology, audiology, etc. All those little ones add up. Normally if you can pay in full with one payment, they'll knock 10% off or something and that's a little easier to keep organized with fewer statements to track. It's a problem in healthcare in general as hospitals offload the cost of employing physicians to groups (so they dont have to pay benefits).

I've had friends/family that have also had a really good experiences at St Anthony and Baptist. But i would avoid Midwest City, Deaconness, or Norman if possible. There's nothing wrong with OU either, its just extremely busy. But cost wise, really they're all about the same. You should be able to call your insurance company and ask for a cost estimate for a typical delivery for specific facilities that are in-network though. If they wont do that, you might try a Health Advocate.

[Richard at Remax]

We've had 2 kiddos at lakeside, one in 2015 and one in 2018. before obamacare it was around $3K out of pocket, after obamacare it was almost $7K out of pocket. But that's another discussion

They are rockstars there. Everyone is very nice, very professional, and implement high security features. The meals aren't bad either. My sister has had 2 at baptist and it was nice too, but she was only there because of the NICU.

[AP]

We just had our child in January at Baptist and it was great. It cost us $0 though because of Tricare, so I'm not sure on price.

[Celebrator]

^^^^^^^
Gotta say I agree with being somewhere close to emergency and neonatal unit. The idea of a home delivery by midwife sounds really great...until it isn’t. I’ve been doing tons of ancestry reasearch and have come across many, MANY “died in childbirth” and “infant so-and-so.” It’s sobering how something we take for granted today routinely resulted in death for the mother and/or the baby a little more than a century ago.

Midwives always have a backup doctor at a local hospital, but if the mother and baby are deemed low risk for a normal birth the births are well...usually normal with rare exceptions. And you can stay in your own familiar room, eat your own food, move around if you want to instead of being forced to stay in bed in your hospital room (my wife and I took a walk around the block just a few hours before our son's arrival) instead of being treated like you have some sort of problem or illness. It's childbirth. It's natural and normal and is pulled off successfully by thousands of strong women around the world each and everyday. As I said, it may not be for everyone, but it is not risky or dangerous if everything in prenatal evaluation by the midwives seems normal. We loved it and had two wonderfully strong and healthy babies who are now strong and healthy kids!

[Midtowner]

We did HealthChoice high at OU Children's Hospital. They seriously need to get their isht together in their billing department. We negotiated the initial bill down about 20% after receiving it and offering to pay cash. That got us down to $2,400 or so. We then got the $1,600 bill from the anesthesiologist for performing the epidural. The real pisser was a $400 bill for a hearing test which took about 2 minutes to perform. Got a separate bill from the pathology lab, probably around $300. (numbers are all approximations, but they are around what I recall they were). Oh and the doc's fee was prepaid and was ~$1000.

Probably the most infuriating thing was a $750 bill we got--for I don't know what--about 1 1/2 years after the birth. And now we've recently been given notice that we're going to get a refund for something in the neighborhood of $400 for overcharges they've corrected.

The experience was great. The physicians were all great. The billing practices though are the sort of thing which, if I tried them in my practice, would probably put my license in peril. We're over 2 years out and the thing still isn't settled.