This week we tackle a topic that most of us don’t particularly enjoy talking about: money.
We cover a number of topics related to your financial agreement with your home birth midwives from what is involved in the fee to insurance reimbursement to refunds. Just a few takeaways from this week’s podcast are:
- You are not paying for a home birth, you are paying for midwifery care.
- Your midwifery fee not only pays for our practice, it pays our salaries.
- Choosing a home birth (at least in our state) means opting out of the usual financial processes and structures of the health care system.
- While we absolutely love our career and are called to it, it isn’t a hobby for us and we’re not able to take a high enough volume to offset poor reimbursement rates.
- Overall, it is best to consider whether all of the services and value-added benefits that come with home birth are worth it for you to pay the fee out of pocket. While some reimbursement may happen in some cases, it’s best not to bank on it. Is this something that’s worth paying for? If yes, great. If not, there may be lower out of pocket options for you.
- Finally, not only is health care expensive in this country, but kids are as well. We often joke about our hourly rate vs. our kids’ orthodontists. Midwives are a great value. No contest.
We hope this episode clears up some of the confusion out there about the midwifery fee!