Insurance and Homebirth

During a consultation with Practical Midwifery we'll ask if you have insurance. Which is often met with "I've heard that insurance doesn't cover homebirth". We're happy to report - That isn't always true. Let me take this time to remind Dear Reader that we are midwives, and not insurance specialists. We try our best, and lean heavily on Chylain with Birth Professional Billing for answers and guidance, who was a Midwife in Florida, and understands our specific needs. While Practical Midwifery does not take insurance as payment, we try to do what we can to help you get the most reimbursed from your insurance. (Don't stop reading yet - let's discuss what insurance covers.)

Besides! - there are so many different insurance plans and non insurance (Share Plans) this article is bound to get confusing somewhere along the lines. Here in Florida's panhandle we have a lot of military families, so we'll also discuss Tricare.

All of the information provided in this article is "to the best of my knowledge at the time of writing". Thanks for the grace.

**Depending on your insurance coverage, it may cover your labs and ultrasound. This varies based on your specific insurance, which we can go into detail during our personalized free consultation. Tricare and Medicaid fully cover standard prenatal testing, as do many private insurance companies.

Lets begin with Tricare - Thanks for your service, or the support you give if your spouse is the member. Prime or Select - both cover necessary labs and ultrasounds, must get pre-authorization and referral from your primary to see Kizie Tosi CNM (we walk you through this process). Reimbursement is different for everyone and we can’t promise a set amount, but it’s anywhere from 25%- 100%.

Private Insurance is definitely the trickiest because there are so many private companies! It’s best to do a Verification of Benefits through the billing company we use - Birth Professional Billing and make sure you follow through with her instructions. You can also call your insurance company directly to ask about prenatal labs and ultrasounds to ensure they are covered. Private insurance has a wide percentage of reimbursement as long as the preauthorization is in place.

None of the midwives are Medicaid providers at this time, so we are unable to process Medicaid as payment for midwifery services. We do however offer a discount to those who qualify for 100% Medicaid and have payment plans available. It does cover your labs and ultrasound completely though!

Share Plans are another alternative to insurance that we’ve seen in practice. Depending on your specific plan, we’ve seen them cover 75-100% of our fees. They also tend to reimburse while still pregnant, unlike all the others require filing to occur after 6 weeks postpartum. You have to pay for labs and ultrasound up front also, but they usually reimburse for those as well.

Hopefully this article has answered some questions for you and maybe stirred up some fresh ones. Write those questions down and ask us during our free online consultation we set up with you.