Explain out of pocket max to me like I’m 5

I hope I can make this question make sense. We have united healthcare and our out of pocket max is $9,000 for the family. $4500 individually. I was out of work for 10 weeks with no pay for maternity leave. Our 3 month old was just diagnosed with a very rare neurological disorder after a 3 day stay at the children’s hospital and will require lots of specialists appts moving forward and in home therapies in addition to the labor and delivery bills.

Excuse me if this sounds stupid, but I’ve never had to worry about this before and we’re trying to get back to where we were before my maternity leave. We’ve started making payments on the L&D bills. Do we have to physically pay off 100% of the $4500/$9000 out of pocket max before the end of the year for things to be covered or does starting a payment plan count? Or will we be responsible for multiple thousands of dollars of medical bills if we don’t pay the full amount right away? Or is $9,000 the max we will pay for this calendar year regardless? I’m lost.

We 100% plan to pay our medical bills. I’m not trying to get out of paying. I just don’t understand how it all works, honestly. Thanks if anyone is able to help me make sense of it.

submitted by /u/Hour-Tradition-7706
[comments]