My hospital wants a deposit of $1000 to have a baby there...

[merwin]

Is that normal? This is really out of the blue. It seems crazy to pay a deposit on something that might not even happen there. I'm covered by good insurance, so it's not a question of being a deadbeat (i think).

This is the first we've heard about it and they want the deposit by 36 weeks (we're due May 2).

Any clues?

[WI_DEM]

1. Could it be $1000 to cover a deductible? some hospitals do

ask for that up front.

[thereismore]

2. When we had our first they wanted $300 (11 years ago) n/t

[sonicramone]

3. hmmmm.....

Sounds like a sign of the times.  I've never heard of that
before, but I'm guessing the hospital has been left high and
dry before by people with money that don't pay or think their
insurance company will handle all expenses.

Hospitals have huge collection issues because of non-payment. 
You would be staggered by the amount of money that they charge
and is unrecoverable.

You have just got to believe they have a pattern of
delinquencies that require them to do this.

[caligirl]

4. My brother in law once had to plunk down 15oo years ago.

[likesmountains 52]

5. I think that some hospitals are doing that so they are sure they get

your "self pay" portion if your insurance does not cover everything. However, I doubt they can refuse to let you have your baby there if you don't pre-pay.

[Dora]

6. Wow. That seems strange.

That seems inappropriate, particularly because you have good insurance.

Is there a different hospital you could use?

[merwin]

7. This is the nicest hospital around, and very close to us.

[Innocent Smith]

8. Never heard of that

With our first child we had no insurance and were not asked for money up front. That was quite a few years ago. Then we our other kids we had insurance with our share being $500 and we were never asked for money up front.

[Lerkfish]

9. We had to do that 7 years ago. Not sure of the exact amount, but

that was the way they did things.
It seemed odd to us at the time as well, but whatchu gonna do? the baby had to be born.

[Xithras]

10. Lots of hospitals want deposits to use their maternity centers.

When my son was born, it was the only way the hospital would guarantee a private birthing room. They had very nice facilities, but had apparently been shafted too many times on the payment.

They made it clear to us that she could still have the baby there if we didn't want to pay, but that the baby would be delivered either in the ER or in a shared birthing room they kept for that purpose. Other technology in the birthing center, like the wireless fetal monitors that allowed them to monitor the baby while she walked around, wouldn't have been available to us either.

It's a sign of the times, but I can understand why they do it. As long as they're not turning people away who can't pay, I really don't have a problem with it.

[Warpy]

11. It seems pretty bizarre

but make sure it's a refundable deposit. It may be their way of hedging against your loss of insurance between now and May 2. It sounds strange and illegal to me, though.

If it's not a refundable deposit, they'd be collecting from you and from your insurance, so tell them to go pound sand and look for a midwife (if you're having a normal, uneventful pregnancy). Or find another hospital in the area.

Hospitals have become the most aggressive debt collectors out there, even throwing people who are late on payments into jail as a way of "repossessing" the service (I kid you not). This seems WAY over the top, though. If you were to lose insurance between now and then, they could very reasonably demand a large partial payment up front. This makes no sense at all.