**UPDATE**WOW! Neurologist Bill!!!!!! | Autism PDD

It sounds very expensive.  Typically the hospital will charge a facility fee along with the doctor fee.  It could be all on the same bill since his office is part of the hospital.  I hope you have a PPO policy that will take a HUGE discount. 

I'm extremely grateful that I didn't have to pay for anything when Ds1 was being assessed and diagnosed as it was covered by the NHS and local health authority and education services (I live in the UK). You can pay for private services but luckily we didn't have to.

 

That seems extremely too expensive!! Ours was a private dev. pediatrician that didnt take insurance and spent over 3 hours on evaluating Sarah and we paid 0.00 out of pocket..he normally charge twice this but we had many tests already done so he cut it in half...Good thing you got insurance!  He must be one heck of a doc!!Wow - to see our dev ped I think it was about 0.00 and we paid co-pay. Over 00 seems just outrageous to me!jeeze, and the US is the only major industrialized nation without universal healthcare and that kind of bill is the reason why i dont go to doctors and have not for many years. I along with much of the population in the US do not have inshurance so if something happens we all pay out of pocket. That bill is outragous, what a rip off they did not even do anything, just an hour long visit with a specialist in a room with a few toys, thats horrble how can that guy sleep at night and charge that much.

I want to have a family, but i fear, someday if something comes up, maby even a visit similar to yours that without inshurance ill spend years paying off an hour worth of face to face contact with a specilist, the US really needs to adapt to the rest of the world.True..now when I call my doc after hours it goes to a "nurse line" and then if she needs to call the doc to call me back our insurance gets billed for 0.00 for a 5 min. conversation

And we wonder why insurance costs are so high!

Let me just fill you in that he spent 1 hour with us in a regular exam room with a few toys.  That is it.  No equipment or fancy machines.

He charged ,502.00

*** See last post for update***

Faithishope39272.5211342593Owie

Our initial hour long appt. with the neuro at Kennedy Kreiger (Johns Hopkins) was 5.  We also see a neuro at DC Children's and I believe the first bill was about the same.

... how much of  those fees is accepted by the insurance company, and how much is written off, though?  You have to look at the breakdown.  Much depends on the contract between the provider and the insurance company, and actually NOBODY pays the "sticker price!"  Just guessing here ... but it seems to be that that total rate is set up purely for negotiating purposes?

That is  crazy!!!!  I know paid for the co pay, I never saw what his actual fee was.  At least your nuerologist had toys!  Mine said he would, and all he had was picture flip books for my son, and 3 hours worth of ?'s for us.  I shutter to think what that cost.

no way. for real? That's outrageous. The hard part to believe is that they covered Payne's test 100 %, but mine none of - something about the age and since his was negative why test me for it....

I know that BB had a Fragile X test done, but we just did the co-pay.

I will have to look at our detail.

That just seems utterly ridiculous.

They'll come up with all SORTS of ways to avoid paying... Our dd had the
MECP2 (Rett's) test done by her geneticist. Our ins co refused to pay
because of the lab that performed it (which, btw, at the time only 1 or 2 labs
did the actual test--not like we had a choice where to send it). Almost a
year later, another geneticist performed all sorts of mito & genetic tests
(skin & muscle biopsies, spinal fluid, on & on...about ,000 worth!). He
also did a MECP2 test (sent to SAME lab in Baylor), our ins co covered almost
100% of it that time. Go figure! The ins companies will drive you NUTS!!!! HMMMMMMMMMMMMM ... I will be sure to ASK before letting anyone draw her blood!!!!

My guess is you had the top-of-the-line test done. We were going to do that but it was such a nightmare trying to figure out how to do it without seeing the geneticists (bureaucracy) that we just decided to do the fragile X and a chromosomal test - that was only about 0 if I remember correctly. Probably less!

I'm very glad for you that you didn't have to pay much! We ended up paying about 0 total - with the specialist co-pay and each individual lab. But, I'd rather pay that than the whole thing!

 

I'm so glad to hear your insurance covered it all!! We've had to battle a few
times for genetic testing...and sometimes you don't find out your ins co
won't cover it until AFTER the neuro/geneticist has drawn the blood.   

my son had entire spinal mri and brain mri- and it was over $$000!!!

The good thing is it was all covered!!

whew!

Ok, so I finally just got the explanation of benefits.

8 was for the dr's visit

55 was for the genetic testing

My insurance covered 100%

All I had to pay was my specialist copay , which I paid at the visit.

 

Incredible, huh!

Wow - the cost of genetic testing is ridiculous. When we had Payne & myself tested for fragile x (carrier for me) negative on both of us btw....it was 00 for that 1 test! I would certainly check out to see if it's an error.  Most autism docs (very well-known ones) in our area (Long Island) charge about 00 for an evaluation. But they don't accept insurance, so that is 00 out of pocket.  When a doc bills, they typically expect to get a fraction of their actual bill. My guess is that your doc will end up with the usual an customary 00.This hospital has a protocol of doing genetic testing with any ASD DX, which we did that day as well in the hospital.  I would assume that would be a seperate bill from the hospital, but maybe that is in there too.
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