Anyone have experience with BCBS MN?

[Caitlin0919]

I actually live in South Dakota but my husband's company is based out of MN so we have Blue Cross Blue Shield MN as our insurance, which I just have to say is soooooooo much better than Wellmark Blue Cross(the SD version). We found a CNM who attends home births(one of two in the state) and we're curious as to how this will work with insurance. Does anyone have any experience getting BCBS to cover their home birth? TIA!

[alyadri]

I live in SW MN  - about 45 min from Sioux falls.  We have MN BCBS.  I do not have experience with the homebirth side of things, however for the birth of my second child, I used a CNM at Sanford.  Insurance was fine with it because it was still in a hospital. 

I think the best thing you could do is call them and ask.  My guess is that they won't cover it since the legality of homebirth in SD is still on shaky grounds.

I am also interested in a homebirth for my next child but for what it's worth, all 4 CNM's at Sanford are outstanding.  I had an amazing experience!

Good luck to you!

Edited by alyadri - 6/7/11 at 9:39pm

[Caitlin0919]

Homebirth with a CNM is perfectly legal in SD, there just aren't a lot of CNMs willing to jump through all the hoops required to do it. I'll probably talk to my midwife and see if she has any experience with insurance companies like this. I'm just worried that if I call, I'll just be told no automatically and won't be able to get anywhere after that.

[Caitlin0919]

Bump
Anyone have experience with this?

[JamieBrewHa]

I had a homebirth. I live in NJ but my husband's insurance is through BCBS of MN.  It was treated as an out of network provider.  Our midwife handled the billing.  We ended up getting about $2400 out of $5000. Part of our out of pocket portion was our deductible which was $900.  Our plan covers out-of-network at 60% after deductible. I remember when we talked to the insurance company initially they said they only cover birth in a hospital, but they'll cover pre and post-natal care.  That never became an issue with however the midwife billed it. 

[Caitlin0919]

That's really encouraging actually! I was concerned that it might be more difficult to get it covered since we're not actually in MN. I've heard of midwives over-billing the insurance companies for pre-natal care and getting more of the birth covered that way. I guess insurance companies don't know the difference since they're used to getting billed for OB care so they have no idea that the midwife is over-billing to cover the birth too. We're going to talk with our midwife about the insurance issue, but she just started her homebirth practice so I doubt she has a lot of experience with this stuff, especially since I'm sure NO insurance companies based in SD will even consider covering a homebirth.