This question of how much it will be to have a home birth versus Hospital birth is really common and can get a little bit complicated, simply because insurance is complicated. I am in no way a Insurance expert so take this information as my personal experience in my years of doing birth work.
If you don’t have insurance the difference between a hospital birth and home birth cost is huge. Home birth is so much less than a hospital birth! Hospital birth can be anywhere from $15,000 to $50,000 and homebirth is $3,500. This homebirth cost is the cash discount. Hospitals usually have cash discounts as well and some sort of financial assistance for low-income patients and would need to be looked into with the individual hospital.
If you have insurance you won’t have a cost for your birth upfront at a hospital. You would get some sort of bill after your birth and it would depend on what services you required, copay and deductible, how much that bill would be. The more services you required the higher the bill will be. For example a C-section will be much more expensive than a vaginal birth. Epidural will be much more expensive than a natural birth etcetera. Clients with Medicaid usually don’t have a bill after their birth.
If you have insurance and are having a homebirth you will need to pay the cash discount price of $3,500 during your pregnancy. Insurance can be billed after your birth and it’s possible that you may get a reimbursement but it’s not something to be counted on.
As homebirth Midwifery does not have state license in Ohio, if your insurance were to reimburse, it would be as a out-of-network provider. If you would like to call your insurance company to get more information you could ask them what your co-payment percentage would be for an out-of-network birth and how much your deductible is, as well as how much of the deductible you have met for this year. Sometimes billing insurance is worth it in homebirth just to meet your deductible for the year, so that you can go get other services that you might have been waiting on. Like going to the dentist or getting your eyes checked Etc.
Please comment below or send me an email with additional questions or your experience. I know we are all constantly learning.
Great to know! Thank you!