Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Money

Have you thought about how much you have spent on IF related expenses? I mean really figured it out? I started to do so. And boy was I surprised. All this time I was thinking we haven't really put out the big bucks yet. I'm gathering all our receipts and explanation of benefits to calculate exactly how much we've spent so far. My goal is to keep a running total. I'm not going to tell you my total so far as I have finished going through all my piles yet. That update will come later.

My question for you all is how do you think this should be organized to get a good sense of how much IF actually costs? I've been thinking in terms of categories: consultations/office visits, diagnostics, major procedures (like my lap), alternative medicine (acupuncture/mental health), medications, and ART (IUI, IVF, etc). Do you think those are the right categories? I have been putting things like ultrasound monitoring under diagnostics. I'm also thinking of who pays. The categories for that are out of pocket, insurance company, and copayments (i.e., we pay in accordance with what our insurance policy says is our share).

Can I also use this time to rant about health care billing? I hate it how you get bills for each little thing separately. One office visit may spark 3-4 bills.

5 comments:

  1. I actually thought about this yesterday, as I was listening to someone whine about the unexpected cost of her delivery at the end of this year. (I most definitely shared my input to shed some perspective.) I include all acupuncture and therapy visits/copays, as I most certainly wouldn't have needed it if it weren't for the infertility.

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  2. We paid $100 out of pocket for each of DH's s/a's. And we are still paying out of pocket just for his one little diagnostic visit in January. I think our running total from that one day is almost $800. And I hate the billing system too. We just got another bill in the mail that was about $256 and I'm wondering if that was/is part of our balance we're paying off, or if it's a whole new thing.
    What I really hate is that my insurance covered all diagnostics for me, but his covered nothing and we needed all the tests for him. If it takes 2 people to make 1 baby, why can't just one insurance cover the couple, kwim? It's dumb

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  3. I agree with Ruth. This split insurance thing is kind of a nightmare.

    I think that as long as you organize it in a way that makes sense, it will help get a feel for how much infertility costs.

    I'm trying to include everything in my list of costs - although I'm not really breaking it out into categories as much - I just list what we did, and the associated costs - I've only got 3 categories that are not specific incidences: Medications, Supplements, and Counseling. Since we can't do IUI, and IVF is a ways off (it takes time to save) we don't have a whole lot of costs going on yet. You can see what I've got so far here(http://jenniyak.blogspot.com/p/hh-money-facts.html).

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  4. Jenni, that is a great breakdown of costs. Thanks for sharing.

    I can't figure out how to leave a comment on that post, so I thought i would respond here.

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  5. to be honest, it sickens me to think about what we've spent in fertility treatments. We could have paid cash for a small house with what we've spent. however, I would rather have spent that money knowing that we did everything in our power to have a baby. For me, just knowing that we gave it all we could, gives me a little bit of peace. And, I will never second guess it.

    Now, if we could just get our adoptive son - all would be complete and a minor blip on the history of my life : )

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