Chicago area homebirthers I have some ???

[heps]

Hi everyone! I just found out I am pregnant and I would like a homebirth this time. I have an appointment with a doctor assisted homebirth practice, but I am getting nervous about their billing. I am really bummed out as the doctors' philosophies really seem to be along the same lines as mine. I am afraid that I will be haggling over bills my whole pregancy. If I continue to go here, is there a way that I could ask for a list of their pricing ahead of time?

I would also love some recommendations of any other homebirth assisted midwives or doctors. Thanks!

[fromscatteredtribe]

I was very pleased with ds#3's chicago homebirth with Alivio (they were featured in the mothering article on homebirth in chicago from last summer in an inset on the homefirst article). they are located on the southside and go to all of the city and some nearby burbs. they mostly do hospital births, but were totally wonderful at my homebirth. they are VERY experienced at homebirth (and work with many women with no insurance, they are bilingual and have all the equipment and are not afraid to NOT use it) i was so relaxed with them there that even though my husband was in a flight layover and i was alone with my two sons I had an almost entirely painless birth (up until pushing). I focused on relaxing the uterus, the midwives rested nearby, and were very gentle and kind. it was PERFECT. he was 9 lbs. 8 oz (not my biggest but born ten days early) and they cared for both of us very well. I couldn't recommend them more highly nor could any of the many other women i know who had successful homebirths with them.

[panda]

I'm at 16 weeks and have been going to Homefirst - I've met with Drs Laura Simpson and Penny Shelton, and they were both GREAT. I've read the threads here recently about billing problems, and we've decided to go ahead with them anyway.

I have some friends who used Homefirst recently. They had a wonderful birth - were raving about it, couldn't say enough good things about the whole experience. As far as I know, they didn't have any problems on the financial end.

I called the Homefirst business office before our first appointment to talk about billing and prices, since at that time I didn't know if my insurance would cover anything. The woman I talked to seemed very nice and forthcoming, and answered all of my questions, though I didn't think to ask for a price list in writing (that might be a good idea, actually). I'll post back if any issues come up. For now, though, we're very happy with Homefirst.

Good luck and congratulations!

[panda]

Just wanted to add this link to birthlink.com . Not exactly recommendations, but it's a list to start from, if you don't get many responses. You could also try posting this questions in the Illinois section of Finding your Tribe on MDC.

Again, good luck!

[Vixenmama]

fromscatteredtribe,

Can I ask who attended your birth? I had a homebirth with a CNM in December and a Alivio midwife came as a backup and she's the best. She's also the person we took our birthclasses from. For my next baby I'm definitely going alivio


also Panda, Laura Simpson is our ped. Is she pregnant? I was afraid to ask the last time I was there--she sort of looks pg.

all the best,
victoria

[Els' 3 Ones]

If it is Homefirst, ask for a written price list. Odds are they will tell you that they don't have a current one. Been saying that for years now.


This is the bottom line with my exp. (1994) They will charge you and your ins co a fee for delivery and pre natal care. They will then charge your insurance co for many, many other things. If they ins pays they are thrilled, if not, they do not bill you. Thus, they feel they don't have to disclose that pricing to you.

Problem is, as Dr Eisenstein well knows, that if the ins co have to pay out lots of $$$$ then they raise rates - which in the end affects us all.

It seems very unethical to me. And it saddens me greatly.


That said, I do go to them if I must take kids to doc. I had DCFS called on me by a ped in Lemont for not vaxing and I won't risk that again. So I dance with the devil.

El

[Spark]

I'm not in Chicago, but I do know a thing or two about getting insurance to pay for homebirths. Here is another option if this works for you... With my child I had a homebirth & paid for everything out of pocket. It was $2400 total spread out over 8 months. It was a big part of our budget but well worth it. This included all the prenatal, birth and postnatel care. It took me a year of writing or calling once a month to receive the birth paid for in full. I have an HMO that doesn't cover out of network or homebirths. The trick was, I never said I had a homebirth. I said that I was sent by my Dr. to this person for prenatal care.

Either way, make sure you use who you want to use. This is no small matter you might as well use who you want to. The extensive biling by that Doc group sounds wrong. I wonder if they one of the reasons more insurance companies don't cover homebirth.

Best wishes!

[Katana]

Hi heps,

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I think that in the last couple of months, some of the offices of Home First (probably all of them) offer something called First Care or something like that, for people who don't have insurance. Or for people whose insurance won't cover home birth.

It seems like people who use that program don't get the outrageous bills, since there is no insurance company to bill.

Maybe you could look into that?

Good luck.

[panda]

Vixenmama: yep, she is. I think she's about 6 weeks ahead of me which would put her edd in September, maybe?

[beccaboo]

Somebody told me that Alivio recently closed - is this true?

Also, my friend just told me that Penny Shelton is getting married and moving away, so unfortunately Homefirst is losing a wonderful doctor.

The comments about Homefirst are interesting. I just found out that they'll now accept our HMO (BC/BS) so I'm strongly considering switching over to them for my own care and that of my boys. I'll check out the recent thread/s mentioned.

[chicagomom]

I recently wrote about my experience with HF - I have some friends who birthed with HF also and they had similar billing problems. Basically what Hf did in each of our cases is tell us we would only have to pay 750 (with a 'contract') if they were out of the insurance's network of drs. We were asked to pay this before the birth, and then after the birth we each started getting bills for all kinds of things including the birth. In my case the birth itself was billed at about 6K and then there were about 1-2K of 'extras', like a charge for the dr to transport the cord blood, charges for tests, a charge for the baby's first exam (immediately following the birth). HF bills the insurance company, but then sends you a bill too. In my case the insurance company asked HF for more detailed information on the charges they were submitting (this is routine) - when I called HF to ask about it they said they didn't have any record of the request, so I called the insurance co and asked them to re-submit their request.

My friends tell me that they basically bill the insurance co and you for everything and then just see what they can collect. I understand that HF needs to get paid, but to me it seems unethical to have patients sign a contract regarding costs and then bill for additional after the birth. I'm taking the advice from people here as well as my friends and am trying to get HF to adhere to their original contract with us; I don't know how it will all turn out but it has definitely left a bad taste in my mouth.

BTW for the record this has *nothing* to do with the *insurance company* not paying or being nefarious - this is about HF's billing practices. I think that's important to say, since this has happened with friends who have had a variety of insurance companies.

It's too bad that the billing practices are so strange there - I really love the practice and would have definitely used them for my kids if I only felt I could trust them financially.

I also have heard that Dr Shelton is moving away - one of my friends is in her 8th month and we are both sad to see her go. She is great!

Carolyn