Federal employees -- is homebirth covered by your insurance?

[hypatia]

I am figure out whether I want to get my insurance through my husband's federal job. If you know if they will pay for homebirth, please let me know.

Thanks!
Sara

[Eman'smom]

I am a state employee, so it might be a bit different it might not. My plan "says" it covers homebirth 100% but here is the catch, you have to one of thier contracted CNM's. OK no problem right, there are a ton in the plan, however they all have to sign hospital contracts that they won't perform homebirth. The insurance says that is hospital policy not theirs so they can't help it, yeah right. Anyway there are no CNM's or others under my plan that were covered.

I could have used my "out of network" plan to have it covered by a CNM of my choicing though. However with my deductible/and % I would have basically paid for the whole thing outright.

[pilesoflaundry]

Depends on what type of job/insurance plan it is. Can you calll them before you sign up for it and ask? My dh is in the military and I recently found out they cover it. I wish I knew that before! But anyway I think the catch is you have to use a cnm instead of a lay/apprentice midwife.

[hypatia]

I can't believe they pulled the bait and switch on homebirth on you like that!

I spent a little while on the web trying to figure out how it works, and it looks kind of complicated. I'm not in any rush because I'm not actually pregnant, but I want to make sure we sign up for the right kind of coverage if possible.