Management fee - $300 to $3000?

dear all, im new to this forum. need your advice on management fee.

We had our first one at pub hosp and the OB was fine. His delivery management fee (on wk 20) was $200-300. On the delivery day, he charged us around $1700 and got around $1200 back.

We are planning to have our second baby and tried to contact some OBs (going priv hosp). They will charged for the management delivery on wk 20 for $2000-3000. This is the same as mentioned by others in this forum.

Can someone share what did they receive when having delivery management consultation session? Why is so expensive?

many thanks in advance.

jonas's mum

HI JonasMum- I had to reply to your management fee thread here as you can't reply to OB discussion threads and I don't seem to be able to PM you.

Anyway- the management fee has nothing to do with anything you receive at an appointment- you don't actually get anything for that money really. Basically you're paying for their liability insurance. different docs have difference amounts of insurance excess they have to pay for a birth and they pass the costs on to you. You will get some of it back from medicare but only about $400ish.

I have moved this to pregnancy general discussion.

There are obs who don't charge this fee if you look hard enough. They tend to book up fast though. It's an expensive business having a baby, isn't it!

I had to pay $1200 at 20 weeks. There was no "special consultation" just a regular appt. I think it is often justified as insurance money etc. The other cost is the appts themselves every 4 weeks, getting more regular as the pg progresses. My ob is $160 for the first visit and $80 for subsequent visits. I'm not sure how much you get back from Medicare with the changes to the safety net.

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HI JonasMum- I had to reply to your management fee thread here as you can't reply to OB discussion threads and I don't seem to be able to PM you.

Anyway- the management fee has nothing to do with anything you receive at an appointment- you don't actually get anything for that money really. Basically you're paying for their liability insurance. different docs have difference amounts of insurance excess they have to pay for a birth and they pass the costs on to you. You will get some of it back from medicare but only about $400ish.

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Thanks for your explanation. But why the cost difference is so high?

different doctors have different insurance premium amounts, depending on their insurance carrier and whether they have had insurance issues in the past. Also- if they tend to carry a high number of high risk patients then their premiums go up. Higher costs don't necessarily mean that that particular doctor has been sued but it could mean that.

We had a $1200 fee at 20 weeks which we got half back from and then had an $800 fee at 32 weeks for delivery etc, we don't get any back from this but were told we could claim it on tax next yr. We don't pay for our monthly, fortnightly, weekly visits to our ob.

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Our ob's fee went from around $750 to $1500 from our DS who is 2, till this pregnancy now. Our medicare threshold limit amount is the $1200 one, and they said depending on when we hit it, we will get a minimum $200 odd dollars back, with a max rebate of something in the $400 area. I think they are putting a maximum limit on the refund you can get with this fee.
I'm not sure about the amount you have to be out of pocket for claiming on tax for the current financial year? Our accountant told us this year that it is being increased. I think she said you will be able to claim anything OVER $2000?? out of pocket?
If you go to medicare and ask, they will be able to give you an idea how much you're min and max amount for a refund would be. :)

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Thank you very much all for your answers. We pretty much understand the issue now. Will need to find the right one (OB) now. We think Perth needs more affordable OBs as we find difficulty to find the one who can be booked even though is only wk-5 of preg.

cheers

My ob (in Perth) is completely bulk billed...Dr Bouvarie, at Parmelia Medical Centre. (Will be delivering at Rockingham General - which is public)

Where abouts in Perth are you?