Insurance and UC

[basje]

I'm am on the phone right now with my medical insurance company finding out how I am to report the birth to them if I successfully UC. They are so confused. "So you mean,..... there won't be a midwife?" "Who exactly delivers a baby?" It's almost funny. Almost.

[guest8990]

oh man.. i didnt even think of that.. i wonder what i will tell them? i will probably report it an accident to them

[zoebird]

all we had to do was provide the birth cert and ssn after he was born. easy.

[firewoman]

Except that when you UC getting a birth certificate and SSN isn't so easy and in order to put the baby on the insurance as a qualifying event, it has to be done 31 days from the date of birth. I had a homebirth and we didn't have the birth certificate within 31 days.

Are you planning on taking the baby to the pediatrician in the first weeks of life because a letter from them may suffice. My insurance accepted a letter from my midwife to add the baby. Good luck with your birth and getting the new babe added!

[zoebird]

it wasn't an issue with our insurance co.

[basje]

They told me that they encourage me to take the baby to the hospital after the birth to get checked out and so the hospital can fill out the paperwork to enroll the child officially. Apparently the first 30 days after the birth the child is covered by my coverage, but it's better for paperworks sake to have them covered asap.

I'm not keen on taking the baby to the hospital if I have had a successful UC, so I think I'll just have the peds person fill out paperwork after two weeks when we go in for a checkup. Nice thing I did learn though, is that ambulance care is 100% covered if I am in the third stage of labor or after and I can choose whatever hospital I want to be taken to or have the baby taken to.

Next up I need to research this whole birth certificate thing in CA. And how to report the birth to my social services worker so the child can be included on my food stamps and medi-cal. Paperwork, paperwork.

[Captain_Crunch]

Originally Posted by basje

Next up I need to research this whole birth certificate thing in CA. And how to report the birth to my social services worker so the child can be included on my food stamps and medi-cal. Paperwork, paperwork.

California has one of the easiest birth certificate processes I have ever seen, there is a pdf packet online to download for registering "out of hospital births."

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birth...%20Package.pdf

*You'd use the instructions as if the midwife does not want to be listed since there is no midwife.*

[gossamerwindweb]

Originally Posted by zoebird

it wasn't an issue with our insurance co.

We took him to the doctor at 2 weeks, turned in everything for the birth certificate in less than a month, and got his birth certificate a month after. The SSN took a bit more of my hoofing around but we got that in time too. Insurance company wasn't a problem. The government getting the birth certificate done in time for us to get the SSN in time for insurance was the problem. But it was o.k. in the end. The insurance company I am SURE won't know what to do. LOL!

[xixstar]

I'm pretty sure that we didn't have our BC or SSN within 30 days. First we just called and let them know we had a baby (doctors don't do that for you anyways, right?) and then provided them the SSN when we got it. I still don't actually have a BC for her since we have to pay to get it... I should probably do that though.

[basje]

Wow you just saved me an hour hunting around online. Thanks Captain!

[sweet_tart_vt]

My last 3 births have been UC and I havent run into any problems with our insurance. A couple days after babe was born I went down to the town clerk's office and asked to fill out paperwork for a birth certificate and SS#. The first time they were quite confused, thinking I was the midwife, and then when i briefly explained my UC to them, although flabbergasted, they went ahead and filed the paperwork. All they really need to know is # of babes, date, time and location of birth. They gave me no flak about needing a MD/OB/MW signature on the papers. We received notification that all had been filed and got our copies in less than a month (about 3weeks if I rememeber correctly.) I am sure you could very easily see a forward-thinking ped. and they would be happy to help you if you wanted to go that route too. We never did since I see no point in taking a healthy chid to a Dr. Sometimes you have to do a bit of explaining and jumping through hoops, but it is well worth it!

Blessings to You!

~Shelby~

[UCmamaToMany]

Dh basically just called our insurance and reported the birth. They sent papers and we filled them out and sent them back to them. As soon as we got the SSN we passed on the information, but in essence just call insurance after the birth and request a change in insurance paper, ie adding a person. It shouldn't be too difficult.

We always went and got the BC done within 1-2 weeks after birth and we got the BC the day we filled it out for just $15 or so. The SS# is filed via the BC paperwork and is sent to you later. They've changed things now to where they don't send a card but just the number now. (at least here)

[Belle]

Originally Posted by firewoman

Except that when you UC getting a birth certificate and SSN isn't so easy and in order to put the baby on the insurance as a qualifying event, it has to be done 31 days from the date of birth. I had a homebirth and we didn't have the birth certificate within 31 days.

We called the insurance company around 28 days or so after the birth when it was evident that neither the bc or the ssn was going to arrive by the magic 30 days. They didn't need the bc but they did want the ssn. We told them to go ahead and add her and we would call them with the ssn as soon as we got it. They didn't give us any problems with this. It took the Social Security Department two months to get us her SSN.

[luv-my-boys]

a friend on mine had a UC and one thing she did was she actually went in for a PP checkup with a midwife (she didnt want the midwife to attend but wanted some prenatal/pp care) and had her write up a letter basically stating she had seen her as a patient pg and can confirm she was no longer pg on and recently given birth. she faxed that to the insurance compnay and also took a copy to get the BC stuff done as her area is too UC friendly she was preparing for the worse. luckily she didnt need it.

[Kidzaplenty]

We have never had any trouble with the insurance company. Just call them up, tell them the baby had been born, then gave them the SS# when it arrived.

[gabeyho]

Originally Posted by Captain_Crunch

California has one of the easiest birth certificate processes I have ever seen, there is a pdf packet online to download for registering "out of hospital births."

http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/birth...%20Package.pdf

*You'd use the instructions as if the midwife does not want to be listed since there is no midwife.*

THANK YOU! That link is SOOO helpful, I can't believe I've never seen it til now.

[zoebird]

i double checked with DH and he said that all he needed to get coverage beyond the 30 days was a letter from our doctor. the letter had to be on the dr's letter head, have the baby's name, date of birth, and our names, and signed that the doctor saw the baby.

then, when we got his BC and SSN, we submitted those.

[Aurora]

For our insurance all we ever had to do was go online and add the babies. Give name, birthdate and gender. Then, once we had the SSN # we added it. Super easy.

[KariM]

We just had to provide the SSN when we got it. If memory serves that finally got taken care of about a month to a month and a half after the birth.

FWIW - we took the baby in to see our family practice doc about a week after the birth and that appointment was covered by our insurance. The doc's office just billed like they usually do even though we didn't yet have a SSN.

[Talula Fairie]

I didn't have a UC but did have a homebirth not covered by my insurance. My husband got our child added to our insurance through his work...all he had to do was show the birth certificate.