Sticker Shock

The statements from Violet's recent heart surgery at Children's Mercy have begun finding their way to our mailbox, and let me tell you, these are always quite entertaining to peruse through.

 First, we got the bill from the various doctors who helped take care of Miss Vi during her hospitalization.  The most interesting part of this bill is that for some reason, we have the billing department at CMH thoroughly confused with our two kiddos.  On more than one occasion, they have applied a payment for one of Violet's services to a very old service for Oliver (which resulted in a "credit" on Oliver and a late charge on Violet -- ughh!!)  So this statement, again, has both Oliver and Violet on it.  The interesting part is that Dr. O'Brien actually repaired an ASD on Oliver as part of his big heart surgery.  The charge was $3,200 over 4 years ago, and the charge for Violet's repair was $3,956.  I'd say that 'inflation' isn't too terrible. . .

So that was the doctor's bill. . . Here is the hospital bill.  And yes, it is "continued on next page" (but the biggest stuff is all on this one).

 So a measly $107K for the PICU stay, $21.5K for respiratory therapy, and $20K for pharmacy.    The biggest bargain was possibly the Radiology/X-ray at $6K, because the girl seriously had at least 20 chest x-rays while we were there.  It's also interesting that Dr. O'Brien's charge was just under $4,000, but for the rest of the OR services the bill was over $35,000, making the surgery itself nearly $40K.

 But you know what?  This sweet face. . .

 . . .is worth every penny. . .

 . . . a million times over.

 That being said, we're all very thankful that Blue Cross is picking up the lion's share of those figures!