Fees

FULL FEE

The fee for Homebirth Midwifery Service is $3200. For this amount, you receive:

A full schedule of prenatal visits in my office – as many as you need
Attendance by me and an assistant at your labor & delivery
Use of the labor tub
2 postpartum home visits (more if necessary)
A 6-10 week postpartum office visit
Use of my lending library
Access to my discounted supplements
Unlimited phone availability

The fee may be paid in lump sums of any amount arranged in the payment plan. I ask that the fee be paid in full by 38 weeks of pregnancy. If financial difficulties make full payment by this date impossible, payments may be made after this time by presenting a series of post-dated checks for at least $50 per month.

FLEXIBLE FEE OPTION for Cash Payment in Advance – Financial Hardship

I have chosen to offer a flexible fee option to families in need. Anyone for whom the full fee is an unrealistic amount can choose a lower fee that is in accordance with their own finances, with a minimum fee of $1400. This amount still covers the full service, as outlined above. I have chosen this flexible fee schedule for a number of reasons:

My clients come from a wide range of economic backgrounds; I do not wish to limit my services to the financially-secure
My services are sometimes not covered by insurance
I am committed to the belief that any woman who desires a homebirth should be able to have one (providing she is healthy and her pregnancy is low-risk.)

I will not require proof of income level, lack of insurance, or any other justification for the amount a client chooses; rather I ask clients to honestly assess their family’s finances as they create a payment plan and discuss their planned schedule of payment with me at an early visit.. In order to qualify for a modified fee, clients must pay the full amount they select by 38 weeks of pregnancy.

No matter the fee paid, it does not include any incidental fees which may occur, such as: parking fees/tickets directly incurred during your care, or special-order herbs/ supplements/vitamins, birth supplies, doctor fees, lab work, medications your doctor may advise you to have, transport by ambulance, or hospital fees. Additionally, if prenatal visits, other than the 37-week home visit, are done in the client’s home at their request, there is an additional charge of $35 per visit.

Please rest assured that, regardless of the fee amount selected, the care a client will receive is the same. Paying less does not mean you get less service.

Finally, I remind you that money should not be the deciding factor in whether to birth at home, using the services of a midwife. Your belief in and commitment to homebirth, as well as your sense of your care provider’s commitment to you and to responsible childbearing and health care, should form the basis of your decision to work with her.

Billing Fee

BirthSpirit uses Larsen Billling Service to create insurance claims. As outlined below, there is an additional 7% fee (of amounts collected), over and above the fee for midwifery service, charged for this. Using a professional billing provider makes it much more likely that the claim will be paid and the client will receive a reimbursement of their fee, and therefore in the best interest of both midwife and client.

Transfer of Care prior to term

If any abnormal conditions arise during the prenatal period necessitating the termination of these services before the 38th gestational week, the fee will be prorated based upon the length of pregnancy and services provided, as follows:

        Initial Visit                                                     $100 - nonrefundable
        Routine Office Prenatal Visit                            $45
        Emergency/weekend Office Visits             $60
        Home Visits                                                    $100
        Doctor's Office Visit                                        $60
        Per Mile Traveled (by midwife and assistants)                 $.50/mile
        Supplies                                                                         actual cost

In the Event of Transport during labor

The package fee will remain the same should the midwife decide to transport you to a hospital at some point during your labor or immediate postpartum. If this occurs, your midwife will continue to offer support and will remain with you through whatever situation develops. She will continue with postpartum care following your discharge home. This support and advocacy at the hospital can be very valuable, and having an experienced person there whom you can trust makes the experience much more comfortable.

Insurance

Many insurance companies now cover homebirth costs. (State insurance plans, such as Medicaid/ BadgerCare, currently do not..) If you have insurance or health care coverage, our billing service will bill your insurance company or health carrier for you. By entering into this contract, you authorize our billing service to release health information to your insurance company or health carrier for the purpose of processing your claims.

Our billing service may bill your insurance company or health carrier for the following services related to your care including, but not limited to:

Initial visit, lab work, OB global fee including delivery, intrapartum care, birth assistance,
supplies, IV therapy, newborn exams & PKU, postpartum home visits.

When we bill clients directly, we standardize all services into a $3200 package fee. However, when we bill insurance and health carriers, we itemize services in accordance with the insurer’s claims payment structure, which may require billing the payor in excess of the $3200 standard fee. Due to repeated claims processing and tracking expenses, it is more costly to bill insurance than it is to collect directly from clients. We have the right to accept reimbursement from insurance that exceeds the package fee of $3200.

The client is responsible for paying the practice $3200 unless eligible for the cash discount, regardless of insurance reimbursement. If your insurance denies your claims, you are responsible for paying us the entire package fee of $32 00 or whatever agreed-upon amount was granted for financial hardship.

If, upon verification of benefits, your insurance company is likely to pay, we may agree to only collect the deposit, your deductibles for you and your baby, and approximate coinsurance amounts (patient responsibility [PR] ) up front, rather than collecting the entire $3200 package fee. If your insurance company pays, and we find that we have overcharged you, we will refund you accordingly. If the insurance assigns PR that exceeds what we have collected from you, we will bill you for the deficit.

If you have insurance and you’ve paid the entire fee in advance, and if your insurance company pays us directly, we will send you a refund. Your refund cannot exceed the amount you prepaid less your non-refundable deposit. Your refund amount will be affected by your assigned PR amounts and any deductibles (for you and your baby) applied to our claims independently of reimbursement amounts we receive.

If your insurance company reimburses you directly, which is not uncommon, you agree to cooperate with our billing service. Our billing service will determine how much of the reimbursement should be sent to us, and how much, if any, is yours to keep. In this situation, you agree to reimburse us immediately. Any unpaid balance remaining 30 days after the insurance reimbursement was sent is considered delinquent and is subject to a 1.5% monthly interest charge.

Client agrees to pay a fee for insurance billing services. This fee shall be an amount equal to 7% of collections from billing, or $100.00 per full-term client, whichever is greater. In regards to clients who receive partial care, a smaller flat fee may be negotiated as needed. Client will not be responsible for paying the 7% on any amount the provider receives that exceeds the unadjusted package fee.

For more details, contact me personally: 262-626-4994