The Financial Impact of Prematurity
A few days ago I blogged about the emotional impact of prematurity. Today, I want to share the financial impact.
Grand Total: $715,000. Yes you read that right. This is the accumulated total of medical bills associated with Little Dude’s prematurity – from the day I was admitted to the hospital with preeclampsia to his last specialist visit just over a month ago.
Preemies are expensive. Don’t get me wrong, they’re worth every penny. But it’s a hardship. I fortunately had medical insurance. His hospital stay alone was more than what I paid for my house. $293,000 for my teeny-tiny little man to stay in the hospital for 55 days.
That doesn’t cover the doctors and specialists: perinatologist, neonatologist, respiratory therapist, cardiologist, neurologist, ophthalmologist, and urologist. We also had a social worker, a physical therapist, a speech therapist, a nutritionist and a lactation consultant. And then there was the 24/7 care he received from the NICU nursing staff. And our little dude was healthy! We didn’t have any complications or surgeries during our NICU stay.
After we were released from the NICU we had a few follow-up visits from a nursing program even though we didn’t bring anything home with us (oxygen, apnea monitor or gavage). And there were lots of follow-up visits to the ophthalmologist, urologist, physical therapist, speech therapist, occupational therapist and neurologist.
Our ‘case’ was so financially complicated that we were assigned a case manager by our insurance company. Also thrown into the mess were two different hospitals – on on the ‘plan’ and one out of network. Holy paperwork Batman!
Because I delivered 12 weeks early, I missed out on receiving 5 paychecks from my job that I had planned on depositing into savings. And to top it off, I had to take a 12-week leave-of-absence (family medical leave) unpaid because Little Dude was released from the hospital the day before my maternity leave ended. Financially it was hard – very hard.
Imagine if I didn’t have insurance coverage? Sure, there are services available to help like Medicare and Social Security. But imagine taking on the financial burden?
The March of Dimes has taken on this devastating problem—to find out what causes it and how it can be stopped.
Call To Action: How can you help?
1. Sign the Preemie Petition
2. Join Kristine’s Blogging for Prematurity Awareness campaign and help spread awareness
3. Comment, favor, and share (Twitter it, share on Facebook, Stumble it, etc) my Resources for Preemie Parents page.
4. Post the following button on your blog or site:
<a href=”http://www.marchofdimes.com?kbid=1685″ target=”_blank”><img src=”http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j189/girlie0226/mod_pam.gif” alt=”Support The March Of Dimes”></a>
Note: 100% of the proceeds from this link go directly to MOD.
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Whew! I can’t even imagine talking on that kind of financial burden – though I completely agree that they are worth every penny. I also had preeclampsia. Our little guy never cost us a penny out of pocket, though. His 5 week NICU stay was about $75,000, and his first four months were on an apnea monitor and included visits to a number of the specialists you mentioned. The total of all his visits was in the $200,000 range. But that was a long time ago – not sure how it would adjust for inflation!
Almost 18 years later he still has some residual “preemie issues”, though not anything that he requires special care for. I really appreciate seeing this effort by the March of Dimes and all the bloggers who are blogging about this. Moms of preemies can feel like they are the only one who “gets it” – I know I did.
Your series is bringing back a lot of memories. Thank you for the reminder of how far we personally have come, and how far care for preemies in general has come.
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