A Word About Insurance
Birth is not without cost for those with commercial insurance
Understandably, families would like to use their health insurance to pay for their birth. At one time we were contracted with all of the major health insurance companies, but they would never recognize the differences between home and hospital birth and refused to adequately compensate for our services. As such we were faced with either closing our practice or redesigning our business model. We chose the latter and, like every other homebirth practice, we do not accept insurance as payment.
What most do not understand, however, is that even when they plan to birth in the hospital most families will have bills to pay - birth will not be without cost. There may well be shared costs for ultrasounds and labs (and the more ultrasounds you have the higher this cost); fees for prenatal care; and of course, deductibles as well as co-pays for both mom and baby for the hospital birth. Depending on each individual's deductible and specific maternity insurance benefits, you may end up paying much more for your hospital birth than you would for a homebirth.
