Military Families
o_so_in_love
member
Midwives and Tricare Prime
o_so_in_love
member
I'm a Marine wife and I was just wondering if there are many of you ladies that are preparing for a homebirth covered by Tricare Prime. I've heard that they'll pay for a midwife but you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to cover it. Just looking for some advice 
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Re: Midwives and Tricare Prime
I am not using the homebirth covered, I was told that I had to be seen at the local hospital unless we were within so many miles of the hospital and then we could go to the local ones covered by Tricare.
We have Prime also, but I've had great experiences with the midwives so far at my current hospital.
Good luck!!
I am planning a home birth with a CNM. Honestly I don't know how much, if any, Tricare Prime will cover. I tried to get a referral through my doctor, tried talking to the Tricare office at the MTF, etc. And was shot down at every turn. I even tried going on Tricare Prime Remote because I live quite far from the MTF, but apparently just close enough not to qualify. But, I decided it was important enough to me to do it anyway. The midwife I'm seeing has a lot of military clients. She said they do bill Tricare and they typically see payouts of around $2000 give or take a couple hundred (the total fee is $4000). Those on Standard get a bit more, while those on Prime get less. I'm not getting my hopes up and am prepared to just "eat" the $4k all on our own, but the most recent Tricare Prime patient they had got $1800 reimbursed.
It might be different if you can:
a. manage to get your doctors to agree to refer you
b. I've heard of girls "fighting" for it at the Tricare office and proving how much less home births cost vs. the hospital and then getting a "referral" that way
c. find a midwife who is in the Tricare network (there were none in my area at all)
GOOD LUCK!!! I just want to say, that despite the cost, I have felt so much more at peace and optimistic ever since making the switch from the MTF midwifery program to my personal midwife and planning to deliver at home.
Just about all the providers at the clinic in Bethesda are LPN's, Midwives or RN's (I think) You only see an actual Dr if you're high risk. That was also the case at LRMC, in Germany.
I know you can get a home birth covered. I have a friend, from fertility friend, that had it covered in September.
DS-11 years, DD-3 years, DS-born 9/15/10, DD-9/09/11
You're just giving birth now, you're not mother Earth now
That was my experience too, Uber. There are also NPs there too.
I have never heard of anyone getting a home birth covered in the DC area though. They are pretty strict because there are two MTFs that can be delivered at.
When I went to the hospital, I asked if they had any midwifes on staff and they scheduled me with one. At each visit after that, I either requested another midwife or the same provider, depending on if I liked her (my drs. were females).
Look into, they have a better and more natural birth philosophy- my current one has 4 kids, did 3 of them all natural herself - not sure if there were complications with the one, but overall better feeling than a reg. OB.
Tricare should cover it- most of the hospitals have OBGYNs and Midwives, just look into where you're going to be delivering.
This is not true. They only do intake at the beginning of the appointments along with corpsmen. You will always see at least a 2 PGY Obstetrical/Gynecological resident at the OBGYN Clinic at Bethesda.
Tricare will also cover homebirths so much as they are attended by a CNM who accepts Tricare.