Why do doctors use the term "spontaneous abortion" ?!

[tcinks]

I always thought it was odd when I saw it on the sheet, it didn't make sense. But I didn't think much of it.

Well now, I'm getting all my medical bills and seeing that they are not being paid because insurance company doesn't Cover additions abortions! It's hard enough having to go through the miscarriage, and all the complications that followed. But now having to go back and explain that I actually had a miscarriage and NOT an abortion...ugh. I have to call back all the providers I saw and ask them to reword their coding. I hope it doesn't take long to process, it's so stressful to see all those thousands of dollars of bills stressing up.

 

[TheNewestMom]

After my last MC (in July 2014), the Dr. called it a "Spontaneous Abortion." and I yelled and screamed, I just couldn't believe they would even use that term around a mother who had just lost her baby. some of the nurses could here me down the hall, and one of them came running (she is a good friend of mine, didnt even know I was there tell I started yelling, lol.) to calm me down, and even gave the Dr. a good talking to. A new Dr. ended up seeing me after that, the other was to scared. But the Apologized for using that term, I just think there should be better name to call this... Sorry I feel like I ranted a little.

On the same note, I don't know why they use it. I just yell and scream when they do haha.

 

[NDH]

The word "abort" means to come to a premature end due to a problem or flaw. Spontaneous abortion is just the medical terminology for a miscarriage and has been around for a long long time - longer than abortion came to be associated with induced or surgical abortion.

It is rather insensitive to use the terminology around a woman who has just lost her baby though especially when she might not know the difference between the two.

Did you get the insurance sorted out?

 

[tcinks]

Thanks for your responses.

I was rather emotional when I wrote this, as I was facing a mountain of possibly unpaid medical bills. The first lady I talked to didn't seem to know much of what she was saying, which left me in a panic. But I talked to another who explained it to me better, so hopefully everything should be worked out. I just had to do a lot of calling around.

Still, I don't like the term.

 

[yoshy]

I very much dislike the term too. It's made worse for me by the fact that there is no word in Hebrew (I live in Israel) for a miscarriage. The words for miscarriage and abortion are the exact same word (ha-pa-la), and the only difference is the addition of the word spontaneous (spon-ta-neet) to miscarriages.
It's horrible when I talk about it with friends in Hebrew to have to say I had a "spontaneous abortion".
I'm not sure what I find worse, that or the fact that they call a miscarriage at 5 weeks a "chemical" pregnancy.

 

[Autumn leaves]

Very insensitive, adding insult to injury, poor you xxx

 

[dairymomma]

I've had that happen far too often. It breaks my heart to see that term and my current doctor doesn't use it for that reason. And I hope you get your insurance figured out. Mine only covers pregnancy related things as long as the pregnancy is viable. As soon as tests show things are ending/have ended, I'm paying whether they code it differently or not. But it pays to ask anyway. I've had charges reversed because they kept coding bloodwork as a 'pregnancy test-confirmation' instead of 'history of miscarriage' when the dr ordered up hCG testing. It took a month of calls and dealing with people who didn't know what they were talking about before I finally got ahold of a coding manager who straightened everything out.

 

[KBCupcake]

The term stings a little yeah, even though I understand it.

 

[Mrsgoodhart]

It sucks, I understand medically WHY it's called that but I hate that it is. I recently opened some mail- bills for my D&C which was coded as 'therapeutic treatment of incomplete abortion' or something like that. I hate it. I know that's not what it really was but that doesn't really help. Another document said something along the lines of 'intrauterine embryonic demise'....when it's just that my baby died. I also hate hate hate 'products of conception'....like we just whipped up a potion and that's what we came up with but it was no good. I mean really.
Thankfully my doctor doesn't actually SAY the words, he says miscarriage.

 

[Hopethisyear]

Very bad wording indeed. I have had several chemical and MMC and the coding for that is "habitual aborter" which I cried when I read. It's not like I choose this to happen

 

[NDH]

Thats awful! I wonder if petitioning the medical commnity to change the terminology would be at all successful?

 

[kdmalk]

As terrible as it is, that is actually the medical term. So when you are diagnosed and the diagnosis is coded and billed, that is the term that is in the ICD-9 and what insurance companies recognize and pay for.

Strange that your insurance thought it was an actual abortion. Wonder if it was coded properly? What insurance provider do you have?

 

[AmandaW525]

As terrible as it is, that is actually the medical term. So when you are diagnosed and the diagnosis is coded and billed, that is the term that is in the ICD-9 and what insurance companies recognize and pay for.

Strange that your insurance thought it was an actual abortion. Wonder if it was coded properly? What insurance provider do you have?

I hate the term also but I do understand it. I wonder if the terminology being so similar causes mistakes during coding. Like someone accidently using abortion as opposed to spontaneous abortion. Either way it's a terrible mistake and no mother who lost her baby should have to rehash everything due to a coding mistake.