Midwifery Care is $2000 with a $200 discount if you are self-pay or your insurance doesn’t cover my services. Due to rising costs, this fee will increase to $2100 (with the same  $200 discount for self-pay) for anyone with a due date after July 1, 2010. This fee covers prenatal care, birth care, birth supplies, use of a tub if desired, newborn exam, newborn metabolic screening test and postpartum care. If you transfer care or are transferred during labor a pro-rated portion will be refunded.

It does not cover labs, ultrasounds or Rhogam. I try to be a good steward with your money if you don’t have health insurance and can generally do all the basic prenatal lab work for $20-$50.

If you choose to birth at the Great Expectations birth suite there is a $750 “facility fee” in addition to the midwifery care charge. If you saw a doctor for your birth you would have a separate fee for your doctor care in addition to a hospital charge…and probably a nursery charge, and epidural charge, and anesthesiologist and pediatrician charge and pharmacy charge…Many insurances will pay all, or some of your prenatal and birth care when it is provided by a certified nurse-midwife.  I am a Blue Cross, Cigna and Health Utah preferred provider.

Unfortunately, Utah Medicaid does not cover either home or birth suite births, so I’m sorry but I cannot accept Medicaid clients.

Blue Cross, PEHP and Humana have been the best about paying for an out-of-hospital birth in Utah. DMBA and IHC plans are the worst.  Each plan has different coverage so it’s best to check your benefits. None of the insurance companies will currently pay for the “facility fee” although flexible spending accounts often cover this.

If you’d like us to contact your insurance company on your behalf and find out what they are willing to pay for, please give us a call at (801) 281-0567. (Insurance calls are temporarily on hold until November 23th. Thanks for your patience.) If no one answers, please feel free to leave your insurance information on the voicemail – we’ll need your insurance company’s name, their phone number (generally listed on the back of your medical card), the policy subscriber’s name, birth date, and policy ID number, the mom-to-be’s name and birth date, as well as how to contact you. Please be patient in waiting for a response as phone calls to insurance companies will generally only be made on Thursdays when I have extra help in the office.

If you’d prefer to contact your insurance company yourself, it is always helpful to take down the name of the person you speak with and the date. You’ll want to find out if they cover services provided by a certified nurse midwife, and if they cover a home birth (birthing in the Great Expectations birth suite is still considered a “home birth” because it is not a licensed birth suite). If you’re asked for a billing code we use “59400, location code #12.” Plans that will not cover a home birth will often still pay for the prenatal and postpartum care, which may offset the cost depending on your plan’s deductible and co-insurance, if any.