Big Bucks : Tiny Babies Could Cost a Million, or Much More

Samuel Frustaci may have been too optimistic earlier this week when he estimated that hospital and doctor bills for the treatment of his wife and septuplets would run about $700,000.

Hospital physicians and administrators, parents who have experienced premature, multiple births and social service workers interviewed Friday said the historic birth of the Frustaci septuplets will probably come with a price tag of at least $1 million, and could go far higher.

However, the Frustaci medical insurance plans are expected to cover most of the hospitalization costs.

Doug Wood, director of communications for Childrens Hospital of Orange County in Orange, where the five surviving infants are being treated, declined Friday to discuss the price of caring for the critically ill children.

“At this point, I can’t address that,” Wood said. “There are too many variables.”

But physicians and administrators at Loma Linda University Hospital, UCLA Medical Center and UCI Medical Center in Orange said the average cost of treating a premature infant in a neonatal intensive care ward ranges from $1,500 to $2,000 per day, which includes both the cost of the bed and specialized treatment.

Using that price range, the cost of caring for the Frustaci babies could run anywhere from $225,000 to $300,000 per month. Physicians treating the infants said they could remain hospitalized and on ventilators for weeks or even months before they are discharged.

Dr. Jack Sills, an associate of Dr. Louis Gluck, head of UCI’s neonatal care unit, said the price for treating an acutely ill, premature infant for two to three months averages about $250,000. “Multiply that by five and it’s entirely possible that the cost will exceed $1 million,” Sills said.

The hospital bill for Patti Frustaci from March 25, when she was admitted to St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, to May 22, when she gave birth to septuplets, is $30,579.11, according to Debra Conkey, director of communications. She said the new mother is expected to remain in the hospital for another week at a cost of about $527 per day.

Her bill does not include fees paid to the three obstetricians, two anesthesiologists and seven neonatologists who assisted in the Caesarean section delivery. Obstetricians normally charge $1,500 to $2,000 to perform a delivery by Caesarean section, with assisting surgeons billing the patient for up to 25% of the chief obstetrician’s fee. The charge increases in high-risk pregnancies.

Other Specialists

Neonatologists--physicians who specialize in disorders of the newborn--charge about $1,500 per day and anesthesiologists normally bill patients between $300 and $400, hospital officials said.

The normal hospital charge for a Caesarean section delivery and an average hospital stay of 4 1/2 days is about $2,500.

Frustaci based his $700,000 estimate on the bills paid by Janet and Scott Lederhaus in the birth of their quadruplets at St. Joseph Hospital in November, 1983. He said the couple was billed $350,000.

But Janet Lederhaus said in an interview Friday that the hospital billed the family $250,000 for the seven weeks the four infants were hospitalized. The children were larger and healthier and not as premature as the Frustaci septuplets, she said, and all were off ventilators within six days.

“They called them miracle babies because they pulled through it so well,” she said.

Patti Frustaci’s bills are expected to be covered by the group medical plan she is entitled to as a teacher at Rubidoux High School in Riverside. Her husband, an industrial parts salesman, is part of a group medical policy with New York Life that insures each of the infants for up to $1 million in medical costs.

‘We Expect to Pay’

“We expect to pay. That’s what we’re here for,” said Treva Davis, New York Life’s director of media relations. “There’s no suggestion that because the case is extraordinary that that will not be the case.”

Jo Yancey, director of the Riverside office of California Children’s Services in Riverside, a state-supported agency that provides financial and other aid to seriously ill children, said Frustaci is making a mistake in comparing the cost of treating his children with that incurred by the Lederhaus family. Both Yancey and Karen Snyder, head of the Orange County CCS office, said it is not unusual for a seriously ill, premature infant to run through a $1 million insurance policy in less than a year.

“They both went to the same hospital,” Yancey said, “but the Frustaci children are probably going to be there for a much longer length of time.

But Janet Lederhaus said parents in multiple births often don’t have the time to concern themselves with financial problems.

“You don’t worry about the finances,” she said. “You just worry about the health of the babies. The finances hit you later.”