$18.70 for a baby pacifier

[ACG2x]

OK, so the wife and I recently had our first child in July. Yay us, etc. A few days ago we get a copy of the hospital bill that is being submitted to our insurance carrier. The grand total for her care (two day stay) and my son's in-hospital care is around $8,000.

As I look through the bill there is all the medical stuff, drugs, etc. Then I get to my son's itemized bill.

The hospital was showing us how to get him to calm down with a pacifier by rubbing it gently against the roof of his mouth until he took it. OK, cool. They didn't say anything about us keeping it or being charged.

We thought nothing of it and went home two days later. On the bill, we are charged $18.70 apiece for two pacifiers. I know insurance will take care of the bulk of this bill, but that's not why I'm posting about it. I'm wondering about the principle of the issue. Obviously $18.70 is an outrageous price for a pacifier when you can buy a pack of 2-3 at Target for like $4.

The hospital never told us how much it would cost for us to take the pacifiers home and actually had no idea we even did. They never asked us "did you want to just take/use/etc. these?" Since they used their pacifier on our baby, they assumed it was OK to charge us for them.

As an aside, one nurse was showing us how to hold the baby's head in place better in his carseat and said that if you wrap a towel up the long way and curve it around his head, he'll have better support. We obviously didn't bring towels with us so she grabs a hospital one. She actually says to my wife "you can use this one, just bring it back when you come for your first Doctor visit". Me: WTF? I'm going to bring a plain white towel back? Are you serious? Thankfully, we weren't charged for the towel.

Am I just a nit for not saying anything to the hospital that I didn't want their pacifiers and we would get our own? Or should they have told me that if we didn't give them back after they demonstrated we'd be charged? Or can they just charge us anyway?

It was kind of sad because the hospital we went to provided awesome care overall and we were really happy with how they treated us and the baby. The above kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, given how it led to us being charged.

[highlife]

how is this a surprise? a single aspirin costs $3 at many hospitals.

[KotOD]

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It was kind of sad because the hospital we went to provided awesome care overall and we were really happy with how they treated us and the baby. The above kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, given how it led to us being charged.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's pretty standard. $13 for a single asprin, $90 for a syringe (not the medicine injected by the syringe, or the pay for the person injecting, JUST the cost of the syringe). Thank medicare for effing with pricing mechanisms.

[Los Feliz Slim]

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Am I just a nit

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Yes. This is standard, sadly.

[secretprankster]

Won't cost as much as his braces!

[ACG2x]

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how is this a surprise? a single aspirin costs $3 at many hospitals.

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You miss my point. I explained that while $18.70 is horribly overpriced, it's not the cost. It's the fact that they just assumed because they demonstrated proper pacifier training/use to us with their pacifier on our baby that we were paying for them. They never asked or checked if we were taking the pacifiers home. For all they know, we could have returned them to a different nurse and been wrongly charged.

We weren't, but that's my point.

[Khaos4k]

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[ QUOTE ]

It was kind of sad because the hospital we went to provided awesome care overall and we were really happy with how they treated us and the baby. The above kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, given how it led to us being charged.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's pretty standard. $13 for a single asprin, $90 for a syringe (not the medicine injected by the syringe, or the pay for the person injecting, JUST the cost of the syringe). Thank medicare for effing with pricing mechanisms.

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Do you get a discount if you bring your own syringe?

[Hopey]

Just imagine how you'd be feeling if you didn't have insurance to cover your $18 pacifiers.

[highlife]

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how is this a surprise? a single aspirin costs $3 at many hospitals.

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You miss my point. I explained that while $18.70 is horribly overpriced, it's not the cost. It's the fact that they just assumed because they demonstrated proper pacifier training/use to us with their pacifier on our baby that we were paying for them. They never asked or checked if we were taking the pacifiers home. For all they know, we could have returned them to a different nurse and been wrongly charged.

We weren't, but that's my point.

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They don't reuse pacifiers, if you use them, you bought them. With that said, what's your point?

[moondogg]

That $18 isn't a real number for your insurance, they are who is really only going to pay like $5 or whatever they feel like. If you were paying out of pocket, you'd really be screwed.