I received a $450 hospital bill for a male circumcision weeks after delivering my daughter

• Abby Osborne gave birth to a girl in the spring of 2023.
• Weeks after the birth the hospital sent her a bill for "baby boy's" circumcision.
• Her tweet went viral and she learned she's not alone when it comes to wrong medical bills. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Abby Osborne. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Earlier this year, I gave birth to my daughter. Like many moms in the newborn haze, I was spending time on my phone between feeding sessions. One day my scrolling was interrupted by a text from my obstetrician's office. It was a link to part of my balance due from the birth.

I expected bills to start coming in from all of my providers, but this one, in particular, caught my eye because it said "Baby Boy" on the message and I'd just had a girl. 

At first, I checked the date on the bill to see if it was significantly delayed from my 2-year-old son's birth. But the date correlated with my recent hospital stay with my daughter. Then I thought maybe it was just a random clerical error naming her sex on the paperwork. 

When I scrolled down to the details of the bill, though, it said "circumcision." I nearly lost my mind. I basically alternated between raging at how the office could have made a mistake that significant and laughing hysterically at the absurdity of it all. That's when I turned to Twitter. 

"I just got a $450 hospital bill for my baby's circumcision," I wrote. "My…female…baby…"

The internet started sharing their absurd medical bill experiences

I wasn't expecting my tweet to take off, let alone be viewed more than two million times. I think it resonated so much because this experience is sadly pretty common. There's lots of outrage and sympathy about how common billing mistakes are in the American healthcare system. Sure, mine is particularly egregious, but lots of people are dealing with inaccurate medical bills.

My favorite example of an absurd bill came from a woman who was charged for a mammogram for three breasts. Like most of us, she only has two. But when she refused to pay for the mammogram for the non-existent third boob, her bill was sent to collections. 

Luckily, I had an easier time. It took a while to get in touch with the OB's billing office, but when I did, they sent a very apologetic reply. The charge was voided immediately. Thankfully it was a short and easy process once the office got back to me.

I'm looking twice at medical bills now and already finding other mistakes

I was lucky that this bill came to me directly as a text message. Plus, it stood out as extremely odd since it was addressed to "baby boy." Otherwise, I might have paid the bill and moved on, not realizing I was charged for a procedure that never happened. 

After this experience, I'm making a point to scrutinize every line item of my family's medical bills. I already am finding other mistakes on my hospital bill from the birth — medications I never took and procedures that were discussed but never performed. I plan to contest these. 

It turns out my mom was right, as always, when she told me to balance my checkbook monthly and pay attention to what's on my bills. I've at least half learned my lesson. While I shared the experience on Twitter to be funny, I hope that other people learn an important lesson: always look carefully at your hospital bills and don't be afraid to speak up when there's a mistake.

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