Baby in Neonatal Unit - health insurance

Following an early delivery my baby has been in Neo Natal intensive care for nearly 3 months. As I was a semi private patient he was automatically treated as a private patient (I was too traumatised to think about this at the time). He is on my VHI cover and as far as I am aware his care is totally covered while in neonatal intensive and special care. Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong about this. That's my first query.

Hopefully he will be discharged soon but will have many appointments to attend in the future, most likely in the baby clinic of the hospital or a childrens hospital. My second question is can I then ask for him to be treated as a public patient? There is no way I would be able to afford private consultants fees, even if VHI would cover some of the costs, and these appointments will probably be every week or two for the first while anyway.

Any replies appreciated.

A very similar issue came up in my wok place just today. Colleague had a sick child who has had lots of hospital time/appointments/medication. I was asking them if their private medical insurance covers all treatment or most of it. They applied for a medical card and got one given the nature of the illness.
I would advise therefore to apply for a medical card. I am not familiar with the process but know that my colleague is in good employment and has full private med. ins but they were still entitled for the wee lad.
Someone else more qualified to answer might give a better response.
Hope the baby will be ok.

Your baby should be covered while he's in the neonatal unit, but to be sure I'd recommend ringing VHI to confirm that he has been added to your cover and that he is covered for the treatment. You mentioned that your child has been in hospital for nearly three months, so I'd suggest contacting them as soon as you can. Once a child is added to a policy within 13 weeks of their birth, they're covered from the date of birth.

To be honest, I'm a bit surprised that neo natal ICUs have private services. I would have presumed that this kind of service would have been primarily public, but I've no direct experience of this myself so I'm possibly talking through my hat. I'd suggest first clarifying with the hospital staff that your baby is a private patient (if you haven't done that already). If he is, talk to either the nurses or the consultant about how to have him seen as a public patient after discharge.

Normally, hospitals and consultants prefer not to have patients switching between the public and private systems, but your circumstances are a bit different and ultimately it your entitlement as an Irish resident to be seen publicly.

Sorry I can't be more help, but I hope all goes well.

Hi Bonnie
i hope things are going well for you - I have been in this situation twice so i have some experience. However I am in Cork so I don't know if its different. My first child was born at 29 weeks 3 and 1/2 years ago and she was in the NICU for 7 weeks and was under the care of a paediatric consultant until just before last christmas (about 3 years).
We also have VHI and she was covered by that for the stay in hospital. I just signed a form and that was it.

When she was discharged from the hospital we had appointment about every 3 to 6 months with the consultant, there was never any mention of a cost for this - it didn't go through VHI. As far as i can tell there was no difference between children in a public or private sense. So I think if your child is under the care of a consultant and they refer you for something then it will not be at a cost. We have been for ultrasounds for a gastric issue, had a skin tag removed, been to a dietician a few times. Nothing major but all ok. If you look on the rollercoaster website there is a prem baby board there that has a lot of information. Some of the girls there have been granted carers allowance becuase they needed to care for their babies. I think if you get referrals for physio or anything like that, I haven't heard of anyone having to pay for that.
Its a really worrying and stressful time so hopefully this reassures you that the costs shouldn't be an issue.

Thank you everybody for the replies.

I checked everything out, I did actually put baby on VHI before 13 weeks old, he is a private patient and is covered for everything.

But the social worker also advised to apply for a medical card for him as he will be on medication, and there may be other needs like monitors, oxygen etc.

So all information very helpful, thanks.

As far as I know, there is absolutely no difference between public and private in any neo-natal care unit. It's not as if baby can ask for a private room! The hospital might be able to squeeze a pile of money out of VHI if the baby is covered from birth, but it really doesn't make any difference to treatment.

For any follow-ups, you should be able to see the consultant at the private clinic or via outpatients. You might have a longer wait at outpatients. Speak to the hospital admin staff or the consultant's secretary to confirm.