Maternity Insurance in Phoenix Arizona
If you are either pregnant or starting to plan for a family! Looking at your health insurance coverage is now more important than ever. Below are some important action items for you to consider so that when you welcome your child, you and your family members are properly insured, and you can concentrate on welcoming the newest member of your family.
Check your providers and hospitals in your Insurance Network – Either call your insurance company or log into your insurance member website and make sure that all your medical providers and hospitals are in your network. Doing this will save you considerable amounts of money as in-network discounts are very strong and out of network charges can be very high.
Financial Planning- Regarding Health Insurance there are 2 main things to consider when you are having a baby:
- Your out of pocket costs for the plan you are on and/or how much will it cost you to have a baby on the plan that you are on. Also, you may have a chance to change your plan if you are going through your open enrollment period. If this is the case, you may want to consider lowering to your deductible and/or out of pocket maximum. Even though the cost of your plan may be higher, your out of pocket cost should be lower. The “Out of Pocket” maximum you would pay in any calendar year. A couple of things to note. One, you cannot drop your plan when your baby is born; the qualifying event is to add your child and you cannot change plans when you have your baby. This can only be done at your company’s open enrollment
- How much is your health insurance going to cost when you add your baby onto your plan. It is important to do your research on the cost of adding a baby onto your plan as this can add hundreds of dollars onto your monthly budget
Your baby is born – If your health insurance was purchased through your employers It is very important to notify your HR department as soon as the baby is born. If you have an individual insurance plan you should notify your insurance provider once your baby is born in order to receive the necessary paperwork applications to add your baby to your insurance plan (many individual insurers will be able to do this over the phone). Insurance carriers generally give you 30 days to report your baby to them for the baby to be added onto your plan. Note that, your baby usually can be added onto your plan prior to having their social security number so don’t wait! Please be aware that while some carriers may automatically add your child onto your insurance plan after birth, and if you do not properly submit your application to add your child the insurance carrier can terminate the coverage after 30 days. Unfortunately, if your child hasn’t been added to your medical plan within the proper time frame you may end up paying out of pocket for child medical services until your carrier approves the addition of your child. Or, worst of all, the insurance carrier can decline the addition of your baby until your next open enrollment period (we have seen this many times).
Call your Insurance Broker– If you purchased your insurance through a broker, they can give you many tips on the next steps to take. More importantly, however, your broker will notify you of important carrier rules and deadlines that will help you avoid the costly mistake of waiting too long to add your baby to your insurance plan. As always, we are here to help. If you are looking for health insurance for yourself or for your company, please give us a call or visit our website for more information.
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