Best insurance?

[engineer_mom]

Since open season is right around the corner...I figured I'd ask as my BCBS rep seems to be avoiding my calls. LOL

What do you find to be the best insurance for HB (granted it probably depends on your state and employer)?

But if you don't mind sharing the %'s they cover and how easy it was to get HB covered, I'd appreciate it.

[pants]

I'm curious too. WE have aetna and non of the midwives are in-network. I'm curious to see if other mom's with aetna were covered for HB

[MamaMelis]

We have Aetna PPO. I have not had my homebirth yet (due in may) but my midwife tells me that Aetna is who she tells her clients to switch to if they can as she has found them to have the highest reimbursement rates (PPO only though, she says Aetna HMO wont reimburse at all). She tells me that generally they reimburse 80-90%. Everything is billed after the birth. No HB midwives are technically covered in our state, and if you were to call Aetna they would say that they don't reimburse HB at all in my state. However, our midwife has found that using her 3rd party biller and coding everything the way she does that her clients have high reimbursement rates.

I hope she is right! I guess I will find out next summer, LOL.

We live in PA, FWIW.

[Peace+Hope]

in NC, many private policies do not even provide the option of adding maternity coverage, and if they do (BCBS), it would have been $175 per MONTH for us to add it.

all that to say, the state matters as much as the insurance company.

[nashvillemidwife]

Originally Posted by pants

I'm curious too. WE have aetna and non of the midwives are in-network. I'm curious to see if other mom's with aetna were covered for HB

That has more to do with the midwives than with the insurance company. They have to be willing to take the considerable cut in their fees that are required to become network providers. All the major companies are about the same in their reimbursement rates.

[Bmorefarmgirl]

i have bcbs with no deductible. my midwife and homebirth are covered as out-of-network. they are covered at 80%. because my midwife has a solo practice and can't afford to work without being paid, we have to pay her a deposit, and then she submits the claim after the birth and reimburses us. she said the coverage varies. sometimes they will give her $4000, sometimes they will reimburse her $5000 or more. our deposit is $3700.

my husband's company just had open enrollment and our choices were several different plans from aetna and cigna. our midwife said neither company covered homebirth. some of them had terrible maternity care, esp compared with bcbs. (with my plan, in-plan maternity care would be covered 100%, no deductible.) she said she has sometimes gotten some money back from aetna for home births, but have never had any luck with cigna.

this is in maryland, fyi. here, bcbs is called CareFirst BCBS and it is maryland's version of bcbs, i think.

[iowaorganic]

You can't get coverage here for a hb. But a mw here is the same price as our hospital deductible would be. Obviously it depends on your insurance plans and mw fees. But it will end up saving us so much money it is kind of ridiculous.