Maternity Advantage

I have no experience with that company. However if you have an open mind about natural childbirth look into the birth center in chapel hill. They charge $5000.00 flat rate for all prenatal visits and the birth itself. They even provide the 2 week visit for baby and mom. If you have any questions please E-mail me. I have a 7 week old who was born there as a waterbirth and I loved it. They have a wonderful staff. Also the pain with a waterbirth is greatly diminished.

I haven't heard anything about this insurance but I wanted to point out that a birthing center or homebirth cost much less than a hospital one. Our military insurance covered both of our free-standing birth center births and we paid out of pocket for our homebirth. The care I have received from midwives has far outweighed any that I received from OB/GYN's. With a normal, healthy pregnancy these options are safe, if not safer than the hospital. Even in NC you have other options...if you're close to Chapel Hill there is a birthing center there and there's a few homebirth meetup groups in the NC areas. North Carolina Friend's of Midwives has been working hard this past year to get legislation passed to legalize Direct Entry Midwives(DEM's). Here's the link for my friend's site that offers excellent information about alternative options in NC. http://www.nchomebirth.com/

Congratulations on your pregnancy. If you haven't already, I recommend that you rent the documentary, "The Business of Being Born", by Ricki Lake & Abbey Epstein. http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/ It's an excellent starting point for educating and empowering women to take back their birth! If you have Netflix, you can rent it there.

Wishing you the best on your journey.

Peace,
J.

Hi K....
congrats!!!
Let me explain my situation maybe it will help... i hope...
I moved from florida to nc 7months pregnant no insurance... I lookedinto that maternity advantage and it wasn't worth it at all... as others have said you pay more or the same... i went to a hospital (myers park) and they had me pay $50 everytime I went in and billed me a discounted amount... then I applied for medicaid (in florida and in n.c. its given to ALL pregnant woman may be the same for other states) they retroed payment for up to 3months prior and up to 2months after I gave birth... INSURANCE COMPANIES ---DO NOT--- consider pregnancy a preexisting condition...don't let anyone tell you that so if you have that option go ahead...but meantime apply for medicaid that will be your best bet... hope this helped
-V.

I don't know anything about this insurance. I have recently heard from several places the best thing to do to save money on a delivery is to go to the hospital where you want to have the baby and make a deal with them to pay before the delivery if possible. That can cut the cost of the hospital bills dramatically. They are also very happy to know that they will be paid. This might work with other services as well. A lot of doctors offices will give you the insurance price if you take the time to talk to them about it.

We have not heard of this program. Keep in mind any program such as this will have to be with care providers who are willing to work with the discount company, which limits your choice of care providers.

We do not sign contracts with insurance companies or discount programs. However, we offer discounts to our clients who are self pay. The have to pay in advance. But in the long run we (our practice of midwives) save money by not having to deal with the insurance company and waiting for the reimbursement.

Most care providers will do the same. You talk to them and ask them if they have any incentive packages\discounts that will help you reduce your cost.

As some one mentioned before, In our state (Tennessee) we have two government funded programs for pregnant moms. Tenn-Care and Cover-Kids. However, again you are limited to certain care providers.

M. Richardson CPM, RN, EMT-IV

www.Tender-Beginnings.com

Hello K.,

I have looked into maternity advantage myself but it is one of those things that if it is too good to be true, it is. I talked to my OBGYN's financial lady about this and it really doesn't help out much. The money that you are putting into this plan could go to the doctor. They really are not saving you any money and not a lot of doctor's offices take these discounted plans.

We moved here recently and discovered (even with doing prior research) that our insurance would not work here. So now we are less than six weeks away from having our second child and have no insurance. The only option I have found is trying to apply for medicaid. Insurance companies believe that being pregnant is having a pre-existing condition and will not give health insurance to pregnant woman.

Good luck!
M.

Hi K.,
Congratulations first off!!! Have you considered checking with the state for their maternity medicaid coverage? You might be surprised that you could qualify. It is a separate coverage just for pregnancy and is well covered by most offices around your area. I work in a chiropractic office that has specialty training and therefore gets a lot of direct referrals from OB offices for their moms in discomfort and we routinely are sent over patients on this plan. The coverage seems great and you would be surprised how many families are in a similar situation regarding pregnancy insurance.It is worth a shot.
Hope you find a solution that works for you.
D.

what is the name of it?

I have been in your shoes. The one I talked to was The Maternity Plan. Scam!! Basically these plans say they will negotiate with hospitals to get your cost down. This is something you can do for yourself. DON'T WASTE THE MONEY!!! I found that hospitals and doctors had never heard of it. I do not know what area you live in. Hospitals will work with you when they know you are self paying. St. Francis has one of the best programs. It is called Baby bundle, I think that is the name.
Good Luck.

I have not personally used it, but I have a friend that works there. I recently found out that I am pregnant and she was telling me that if I couldn't get maternity coverage that she could help me out negotiating with doctor's offices and hospitals to where I would receive the price that the insurance company would pay rather than an uninsured person. I think it is worth checking into if you can't get maternity coverage.

Cograts K.!!!!
There is one programm called ADOPT-A-MOM,which provides free of charge care for the mom-to-be.
http://www.co.guilford.nc.us/publichealth/divisions/?page...
And you can go (call) to the Health Dept in your area-they may have something similar.
Hope that helps!
Good luck!

I too am wondering about this company. We are trying for our second and our insurance doesnt have maternity. If I find anything out Ill let you know, and I hope someone on here will have answers to the questions.

I have never heard of it but have heard to be skeptical of any insurance that is not under your normal coverage unless it is like AFLAC and is an extra coverage. I am friends with my insurance agent so if you would like her number to get an honest opinion, just email me back and I will be glad to give you her number. Also, I have heard ZANDER insurance is very trustworthy so you may just want to call to ask the question.

good luck, W.

I wouldnt do it. I looked into this when I was pregnant because I had no coverage, and its complete BS imo, and the opinions of many others. Its not actually health insurance, its a "savings program" and there is NO guarantee that your doctor/hospital will accept it.

Instead I recommend applying for medicaid-cant hurt, I did but we made too much money-and if thats not successful speak with your doctor about it, chances are they will let you work out a payment schedule and give you a discount since its out of pocket. If you give birth in the hospital, negotiate the bill.

Congratulations!

I've worked with billing departments at hospitals and medical offices for years and I can tell you that ALL of them offer some kind of uninsured discount. How much of a discount differs at each place. All it takes is a visit or phone call to their billing office. It's common to offer up to 40 or 50% off the entire bill for uninsured patients, especially if you can make a few, large payments, rather than small payments that could take longer.
Good luck to you!

I've seen several plans like this that you end up paying out almost all of your medical costs, plus the cost of the plan.

On a side note, last I knew pregnancy was not legally allowed to be considered a pre-existing condition?

Hi K.,

My husband and I looked into this. We found out we were pregnant and thought we had maternity coverage through our insurance and didn't. Pregnancy IS considered a prexsiting condition so the lady earlier who told you it isn't is misled, also if you make a combined income over a certain amount you will not recieve medicaid it is not given to all pregnant women....it doesn't hurt to apply though worse they can say is no and you have wasted some time. Anyway we didn't end up going with the Maternity Advantage, we talked to our doctors and the hospital explained our situation and everyone worked with us. We made payment arrangements and it was tough for a while, but now we are down to just owing two bills instead of 6! The price of a healthy birth is ridiculous we ended up paying $25,000 in doctors, prenatal, and hospitals bills. Good luck on whatever you decide to do. Oh and don't let "man's love of money" taint a blessing from God the bills can be stressful, but your little bundle of joy will take it all away!