How much for Paediatrician in private hospital?

I just got the bill from the paediatrician who looked at my baby in hospital when he was born last week, and it came to $460!!! $240 for initial visit, then two more visits at $110....
I didn't even see him on the day he was born - the initial visit - and the second time he 'visited' he didn't even approach my baby or touch him!! He just stood in the doorway and asked me a couple of questions. Incidentally, my baby was perfectly healthy, with no special care at all.
This sounds pretty criminally expensive to me, and I'm sure medicare doesn't pay that much out. Does anyone else have any experiences/opinions on this?? Do I have any recourse on this? It's not like you get to choose your paediatrician when you are stuck in hospital, so I didn't agree to any of these charges.

It does sound about right to me *ducking for cover* :)

I think our account for when DS was born was actually a bit more than that because I remember after Medicare rebate we were about $300 out of pocket.
We were in hospital for 5 days - DS was also perfectly healthy but he was checked in on every day we were there anyway.

Hi Happymum,

I think my pead bill was between $300 and $400. We were visited each day we were in hospital (I was in 5 days). I got 80% back because we were over the threshold and the rest was not covered by Private Health Insurance.
If you think the bill is excessive, perhaps contact other peads who operate in the hospital and ask what their fees are then contact the pead you were allocated and try to negotiate. It doesn't always work but I have heard of it working in some cases.
You can also look up what the scheduled fee (dictated by Medicare - what they consider a reasonable fee for the service but medical practitioners can charge over that fee in private practice). Just google Medicare Benefits Schedule then find the link for Search by item number and then enter the item number on your invoice. It will give a description of the service as well as show the scheduled fee and rebate. If you are over the medicare threshold level, you will get back 80% of the total bill.

HTH

MG

Luckily our paed bill was over $300 but was had a stamp saying something like "your Medicare check is sufficient for this bill"

We also had a lot of pathology bills bit were also totally covered by Medicare checks.

OK so that sounds about right, but doesn't anyone think its excessive considering a)they weren't told it would be that much b) the amount of time and effort put into the visits and c) there was nothing wrong with my baby anyway and d) the paed is obviously picking a number out of the air and charging it because he can??
It sounds like a bit of a scam to me. I mean, the total amount of time this guy spent with my baby was probably no more than say 2 mins each visit and lets say 5 - 10 mins max on the day he was born although I have no idea if he was even there or not. So thats $460 for 9 -14 minutes work.

Actually I was just talking to my husband and I assumed that the Paed did the check on the day he was born in the theatre or while I was in recovery, but my husband said that he was with the baby the whole time from birth until I got to the room and he didn't see a paed the whole time (he was of ethnic origin so he said he would have remembered him). So unless he checked him after around 9pm at night when they took him to the nursery...but even if thats the case, i wasn't present, and I don't have any proof that he was seen by a Paed, no notes, feedback, nothing.....

i just got a bill for my paed today - I think he looked at my daughter for 5 mins max, and the bill was $215!

i didn't know u got a bill??? no one told me that!!! does it happen to all public patients??? i think i only had a paed check Asha once and that was so we could be released.. will i get a bill???

i was a private patient, so not sure if you'll get billed as a public patient.... I'm assuming since your bub was born before mine, if you were going to get a bill you would have seen it by now!

lol oops sorry should pay more attention!!!

I dont think if you had your baby in a public hospital that you get charged to see a pead. I had my DD in a public hospital in perth as a public patient and i didnt get any bills at all.

If you have doubts abot your bill happymum I would definatly question it, you dont just want to be handing money out like that without being sure of what you are paying for.