Financial Information

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Financial:

Consults: Due to a huge increase in demand for homebirth services in the time of COVID19, we are unable to accomodate requests for personalized consults in person, by telephone or virtually. We will email you an FAQ. If you are certain of your choice then, you can schedule your first appointment. $200 is due at the time of service. If you remain in the practice it will go toward your global fee. If you choose to seek care elsewhere it will not be refunded or billed to insurance. The $200 would become a deposit fee.

Global Fee: $5000.  The global feel (includes routine prenatal visits, labor and delivery and birth assistant and postpartum visits days 1 and 3 and at 4-8 week. The $200 increase is to cover increased gas costs.

First Time Vaginal Births: While we love to serve families having a first vaginal birth, the resources required are nearly double that of a woman who has had prior vaginal births. We do an extra home visit built into our package. And we and our assistant spend an average of 16-24 hours with the client before and after birth as opposed to an average of 6-10 hours with a woman with prior vaginal births. There will be an additional $1500 fee for having a first time vaginal birth for patients added to the practice after Oct 1, 2021. That fee is due at 35 weeks. It is nonrefundable even if you risk out of our care.  As we are not in network with insurance, this doesn’t matter to us. Private insurance does increase reimbursement on “prolonged labor” where we are there over 24 hours. These charges do not include the NRP certified doula fees we require our clients to hire outside of our care or the natural childbirth classes we require our first time vaginal birthing clients to take.

Newborn care: (immediate exam, screenings, etc) is billed separately and varies according to care choices of the parents. This is due by 35 weeks. If there is a transfer prior to birth or clients decline PKU, the PKU fee will be refunded. We will buy back any newborn medications purchased that are unused. The home visits will continue be offered as usual and so that money is nonrefundable even if clients opt out of the services. We offer the PKU, the CCHD and the hearing screenings as well as use of our biliblanket and transcutaneous bilirubinometer if needed. Vaccines are between you and your pediatric provider.

Home visits: First time mothers get 3 home visits standard and women with prior children get 2 standard. Typically one of the three visits for first time mothers is from one of our IBCLCs or CLCs.

Uninsured: Families whose insurance does not cover homebirth or are uninsured may qualify for money off both the global and newborn services for timely payment.

Other costs: Medications, NSTs,  birth tub, labs,  cord blood, bilirubin checks for babies, newborn screenings, use of our home bili blanket, are billed in addition to our global fee as they are needed.  These services may or may not be covered by your insurance. Please budget accordingly. Use of disposable supplies at the birth, medications, etc are billed itemized outside the global fee.

Health Sharing Networks: We are happy to take women who are using a  health sharing plan such as Samaritan Ministries or Christian Health Ministries or Medishare etc. Email us to ask our payment schedule for clients with Samaritan or CHM.

Need: For women with financial need (ie you qualify for public aid although we cannot accept Medicaid at the moment) you may qualify for a sliding scale charge.

Insurance: Some HMOs have been known to cover homebirth as an out of network service because there are no in network providers. PPOs generally cover at out of network rate. Coverage varies. Some companies that will not cover the delivery will consider the office visits a covered cost. “Covered” does not mean “paid in full.” As we are not in network with any insurance, we will “balance bill.” That means you will be responsible for our charges regardless of what you see on your insurance statment. Your insurance company will inform you of this. The average reimbursement our PPO clients seem to get is $1500-3000. Varies greatly from nothing to complete reimbursement. Clients wanting to use insurance are responsible to call their own insurance companies and be aware of checking their own claims and understanding their own in and out of network deductibles. Clients who want PPO waivers to obtain a higher level of reimbursement are responsible to discuss with their insurance. MidwivesCare LLC does not call the insurance for you to verify your benefits or do your PPO waiver. Failure to do so may result in you receiving less back than you anticipated or being denied. We do submit claims electronically via our biller. We do provide receipts. We will not provide coded superbills with dates of service to clients for self submission as that is why we pay the biller. However clients can keep track of their own dates of service and code their own if desired and submit to their insurance themselves if they wish. Please understand that your deductible resets every year in January. It usually increases.

Billing

Payment schedule: Payment of $200 due at the first new patient visit.  The next $2000 must be paid at 28 weeks (nonrefundable). Remainder of fee is due at 35 weeks. This money is nonrefundable. Clients transferring care to us prior to 32 weeks will put $2000 down plus their 35 week payment. Transfering care after 32 weeks you will owe $200 at first visit as well as each subsequent visit, and at 35 weeks  $3000 plus first time mother fee if first time mother.  If you transfer care after 35 weeks either due to circumstances or by choice and MidwivesCare LLC does not do the delivery, we still receive that payment even if we did not get to labor with you at home because we have saved your due date in the practice. We will attempt to go with you to the hospital. Either one of our midwives who are also certified as doulas or one of our birth assistants certified as doulas will offer to come with you. If we are denied, one of our assistants offers virtual doula services. Homebirth is a concierge service; we take limited numbers of women a month. You will receive back what we receive from the insurance company for the global fee when it comes. This may take several months even as long as two years with appeals etc depending on the company. You are advised to being checking on your claims on your insurance website regularly about 4 months after the birth.  Then you can see your evidence of benefits (EOB) for yourself and your baby. Listening 2LIstening to fetal heatbeat-Rachel outside