For those who had a c-section as a private patient

How much were your out of pocket expenses?

Our Ob told us that there will be a gap payment for the Anaesthesiologist and second doctor and I would love to know how much this was for you?

I paid no additional fees. I think it depends on what the other specialists charge whether or not you pay a gap fee or not.

Are you talking about the expenses when you had the baby or out of pocked OB fees?

If you have drugs such as Epi or Spinal we were not out of pocket.
Also depends which Dr you get to put in the spinal or Epi, each doc has different prices also depends on their agreement with the hospital.

I had elective c/s with my 2nd girl and from what I remember I was only about $400 out of pocket for the dr to give me the spinal and look after me during the operation, and the price for the 2nd OB present at c/s incase something happens to the first one which was $500. So guess I was about $1k out of pocket.

ETA, Im from Sydney and Sydney is one of the most expensive places to have c/s and OB care.

Thanks!

We will be paying a gap on the second Dr, Anaesthesiologist and the Pead...

Yes I am Mischa.

I know Medicare pays a bit on that, then our PHF will cover some, but there will be some out of pocket for us. We are interested to know how much. Our Ob can't tell us as it depends on what Dr's are available on the day and what they charge.

hun I just noticed your from Sydney, which hospital are you going to? I went to North Shore Private,you can ring the maternity ward desk and ask them what the gap is with the hospital and also if your anethitist has no gap?

Gap for Paed? we didnt have one? again depends on hopsital, we had Dr Arnold

Our hospital is Hurstville Private.

I will give them a try, thanks.

Sometimes it had to know the out of pocket until you receive the letter from medicare after they sent it on to your PHI. After medicare does there bit and then your PHI does their bit they either send 2 cheques to you addressed to the hospital and then tell you the amount you owe and then you send them all to the hospital or to the Dr you need to send it to. Unfortunately it depends on the Drs agreements with the hospital about the gaps. oh and your PHC level.

2 days after I had DD (so we were still in hossy) I got the aneasthetists fee of nearly $1000! :o and then the pead's fee of a few hundred I think....was a while ago. Can't remember how much we got back from medicare though.

Wow Kim, that is crazy! Did you pay the full $1K? Sorry not clear if that is before or after the Medicare and PHI payment.

Yep we paid them upfront and then claimed back...but DD will be 4 on Sunday so that's how long ago it was.
I know some aneasthetists don't charge a gap, but you don't get to choose an aneasthetist - you just get the one on duty the day you're there or the one your Ob prefers to use.
Same with the paed.

I had two c-sections in the private system, and never paid ANY out of pocket expenses. Maybe it depends on your heath fund and how its affiliated with the hospital?

Mine was an emergency at mitcham private at 11.30 at night so we had to pay for the out of hours fee for the anetheatist and for my ob's assistant about $800 all up but I did get back most of it through Medicare and phi

hon if you have elective c/s you can pick your anethetist. I did, my OB offered a few, and she picked the one who worked with the drug I needed for my spinal which was different from normal spinals as im allergic to morphine. Also if you have elective c/s ask if your anethetist will call you a week before to discuss the procedure or any concerns. My OB said this was normal that the anethetist will contact me few days before the procedure to discuss concerns and the procedure.

I think we were out of pocket about $350 for the aneathisist (all up I think her bill was $750) and maybe around $200 for the paed... We didn't get a bill for the second doc though...

I can't quite remember our OOP cause DH had a wisdom tooth removed a week after DS was born so we had 2 anaethetist bills :o

I think our OB's assistant was around $100 out of pocket??
Our anaethetist's bill was orignally quoted to be around the $800, but it think it came in around $500-$600, because we got a couple of hundred discount for paying early. I think we may have been OOP a couple of hundred at most with that.
The paed's bill was just over $1000. Our paed was stuck in another state on a plane, waiting for fog to clear. The only other paed was a previously private one, now working at the public hospital. He came to DS's delivery, checked him over, then billed our paed, who billed us. Our paed, then checked DS when he returned the same day DS was born, then another 3 visits plus the first check up was included in that price. They charged us for DS being an outpatient, so by the time we claimed, i think we were OOP just over $100.

We also got a letter from the anaethetist a couple of weeks before the c/s, which had a price list. It was written out so you could see that they charged in x amount of minute blocks, then if it was an emergency it was x amount extra, if you went over a certain amount of time it was this much extra, etc... not easy to work out how much it would cost, since you don't know how long it will take.

I paid no additional fees for the anaesthetist or the assistant surgeon. They billed my health fund and medicare directly.

I can't remember the exact figures but we were out of pocket about $1000 for the anaethetists bill. The bill in the mail was approx $1600 but we got a $200 discount for paying within 2 weeks and then claimed back $400ish from medicare. We have top PHI but couldn't claim anything back from them for the anaethestist.

We had checked with our PHI about out of pocket expenses prior to the birth and were told none (we were planning a natural birth) but with the c/s we had the out of pocket expenses then we got bills from pathology which were quite expensive and while medicare and PHF paid some, we still had to pay the gap. I have just received 2 new bills in the mail this week from pathology and DS is nearly 6 months old....