Getting Insurance to Pay for a Home Birth
We had both of our boys at home with a Midwife. With Jude we didn’t even bother filing with insurance because we didn’t realize that was an option. We just paid the $3000 out of pocket and moved on. With Noah we decide to check all of our options and see what was covered under insurance. Joe’s work had pretty decent insurance at the time so I called and talked to a representative about our options and they said a midwife would be covered. So we went ahead with our plan to have another home birth with mid-wife.
However, mid-pregnancy Joe’s work underwent some changes and ended up switching insurance providers which have been super difficult to work with on all levels. We had to pay our midwife the total cost of her services upfront, $4000 so we figured we could submit a claim to our provider for reimbursement. (Home births are significantly less expensive than hospital births so you would think they would love to pay out for home births since it’s saving them money.) I had Noah mid June and we are still going around and around with them about reimbursement.
Most medical insurance has no idea how to handle such a situation so I’ve had to call and explain stuff and get my midwife to submit all of my medical records. Also, because I’m Rh- I needed a RhoGam shot after Noah’s birth which was another $151 out of our pocket. So we included the receipt for the shot with our birth claim. Well yesterday we received a check for $60 as a pay out for the Rhogam shot. They said the $4000 claim for the birth was from an “Ineligible Provider”.
So I called today and talking to a very nice representative that said she was going to resubmit our claim because midwifery IS covered under our policy. So we play the waiting game again. I highly doubt it will be a simple yes they give us. But I plan on pursuing them until they finally cave and give us some sort of reimbursement. I’m not expecting 100% returned but I do think having a baby should be covered under medical insurance.
To Be Continued….
