This is a cry for help. A big read so I do apologize in advance. I am Looking for anyone who knows anything or any answers about health insurance system for the state of MN, or just answers in general. I gave birth to my son on May 30th of 2023. I have insurance through the state. Throughout the time I was pregnant I had notified state insurance that I was pregnant. And from the very second day after I gave birth I have also notified the state insurance that I gave birth. My son had to stay in the NICU for about 2 weeks due to complications he had at birth. I was hit with a estimated $100k Hospital bill.. I called the hospital, I called MNsure, I called the provider, and the human services county just to try and find answers as to why his insurance didn’t cover for that bill and this was in 2023-2024. I was told that my son didn’t have active insurance for his stay at the NICU which doesn’t make sense.
Finally, Did a three way call with hospital billing services and my insurance. as the hospital were talking to my insurance. I was THEN told that my son did have insurance at the time of the NICU stay, i thought I was in the clear. and fast forward to now, I was hit with the remaining $37,000 bill from the hospital. Hospital states that they sent the bill to insurance, and then insurance denied payment the first time because they needed more information. So hospital sent them the info they needed and they still denied the bill.. so the hospital decided to take my insurance off of the bill and tried to qualify me for “no insurance discount” and about $31k was deducted from the bill through that. I was NOT notified of any of this.
And then they decided to put my insurance back on the file and re-sent the bill to my insurance. Insurance finally decided to pay $39,000, but not the full amount. And the reason why they denied it 2x was because they said the hospital filed it back to them “too late”. But I called my insurance today and on the other hand they also said that my son only had health insurance coverage from May 29th until May 31st of 2023.
3 DAYS OF COVERAGE!! HOW? I don’t know what’s going on . This is long so I just really tried to cut this short even thought there’s a lot more information..sorry if this doesn’t make sense tried to sum it up best I could.
I will be going to the human services county tomorrow. I’m not sure what to ask and what to say, or how to even clear this up, and what the hell is even going on with my insurance! Please help I really have no money to pay for that amount!!
$37,000 hospital Bill for NICU baby
byu/Fried_RiceGirl inpersonalfinance
Posted by Fried_RiceGirl
6 Comments
No advice, but editing your post to have some paragraphs will be helpful for those who might be able to provide help.
I’m no expert here, but I’d say definitely don’t accept/pay the “no insurance amount”.
If you notified the state and your child should’ve been added, then that’s something that the state should be able to work out on their end.
It sounds like a pain, but just keep working with the state to get this corrected.
What type of MNSure insurance did you have? Medicaid or Minnesota Care?
At what point did you add your son (start paying premiums for a family plan or self + 1) instead of just a self only plan? You said you “notified” your insurer? Do you mean you added your son to your plan?
As long as that’s done within 30 to 60 days of birth (depending on state and insurer), coverage should be retroactive to birth. Don’t do that though, that’s where the 3 days comes in.
But yes, you’re on the right track with talking to human services.
Try posting this in /r/healthinsurance … they are very helpful there.
Why was your son in the NICU? We also had a NICU stay and applied for disability which made him eligible for Medicaid. He had a very low birth weight.