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Looking for someone with IBX Keystone HMO who gave birth at Penn Hospital

racheljcoxracheljcox member
in Philadelphia Babies
So this is an INSANELY specific question. But I thought I'd try anyway.

My husband and I are trying to decide between a home birth and a (natural) birth with Penn Midwifery, preferably in the natural birthing suite thingie.

My insurance company won't tell me how much to expect a birth will cost us. Of course there are estimates, and no one knows what kind of situation will arise, which alters the cost. But there are some very basic questions that they just won't tell me, ie: if it costs $800 a day to stay in the hospital after delivery, what if I am only there for 6 hours? Ideally I will laboring at home with my doula and will only go to the hospital once I transition. The customer service at ibx told me that overnight is considered 23 hours or more, but she had no idea what kind of charge I would receive if I was there for less than that. And that's the bulk of the maternity costs, the daily rate to stay there.

She told me in order to find out actual costs, I will have to have my provider (a midwife?) call the ibx provider line to find out for me. I can only imagine they will laugh in my face if I ask them to do that.

I am getting incredibly frustrated, and at this point almost want to do a full-on homebirth just out of spite. The midwife that we met with would charge $3,500. Which is the same as ibx estimates for a hospital delivery with their insurance. I don't know if that's an average between vaginal and caesarian. The worst-case scenario, of course, would be getting the homebirth midwife and then having to transfer to the hospital because of a complication, and paying twice.

I hate to make this decision based on money, but we are talking about thousands of dollars here and I would like some idea ahead of time of what I can expect to spend.

Can anyone shed light on this issue? Has anyone been in a similar dilemma?

Thanks
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Re: Looking for someone with IBX Keystone HMO who gave birth at Penn Hospital

  • FishtownLaurenFishtownLauren member
    Hi Rachel - can you tell us what you ended up doing  and the cost? I'm in a similar situation (different insurance) and would love to hear about your experience with the birthing suites at Penn Hospital!
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  • 2catdaughters2catdaughters member
    I have Keystone Health Plan East HMO and I had to pay $150 per day for my stay in Pennsylvania hospital after the birth. With my first baby, I went in on Wednesday evening, had the baby Thursday evening, and went home on Monday afternoon (ended up having a c-section). I paid $600 total. With my 2nd baby, I had a scheduled c-section on Friday, went home Monday, and paid $450. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have...
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