"Pay Before You Push" OBGYNs

Try to apply for AHCCCS as secondary. Then once approved, pick out the plan that has the hospital you want to deliver your baby at and/or the OB DR you have contracted with.

AHCCCS has different requirements for qualifications for maternity than regular medical assistance which means your income can be higher and they can cover you through maternity and six months post partum and cover the copays, deductibles, coinsurance that your primary insurance applied. Your baby will be covered automatically for a year as secondary, too.

My husband was on AHCCCS when he was very ill. When he had to re-applied for extended coverage, they found out I was pregnant with Sky and automatically covered me as secondary. I didn't even applied for it. They just did it. I was shocked. Sky was covered for a year. It brought a lot of relief to my stress level.

Good Luck

H~
Mom of 2 Daughters - Kelly (3 yrs) and Skylar (21 mos old)
zoostationu2@hotmail.com

I'd talk to your OB at your next appointment. It's her staff, and she might be very surprised to find out how they're treating her patients.

Good luck!

Jennifer, mom to one special little boy

There seems to be a growing trend...Last year, I had an incident. To make a loooong story short, I was about 2 months pregnant when my mother-in-law decided to discontinue dialysis. Weeks of family meetings with doctors, psychologists, social workers and finally hospice workers followed to no avail. We begged her to stay for the new baby. That made her cry, but didn't change her mind. Meanwhile, I went for a routine ultrasound and they found that the baby's heartrate was too low. We watched and waited. No signs of miscarriage, just a warning of an unhealthy baby. I walked around numb for two months, taking care of only necessities (work, bathe the kids, feed the kids, try to comfort my husband, help care for mom, etc.) All of our bills are paid automatically, so I barely even check the mail. Well, our pediatrician's office had a policy of collecting payment for immunizations, regardless of whether or not your insurance covers them. If they are covered, then they keep your money and issue a credit. Well, in my fog, I left an appointment without paying for the immunization and apparently, they sent a bill in the mail for $20. They must have sent a few notices, but I never even opened an envelope. To complicate matters, my insurance changed at the beginning of that year to a new company plan and they were still ironing out the bugs and many doctors were not getting paid, so I assumed that any bill that did show up, was another insurance snafu that would get ironed out like the others. Weekly ultrasounds and daily visits with mom, later, the baby's heart beat finally stopped and they scheduled me for a D&C. The morning of my surgery, the hospice center called and said that mom had only hours left. She died at 10:05am and we left for the hospital for my surgery at 11:00am. It was the most stressful time of my life. My own emotional issues to grapple with and those of my husband and children. Finally, two weeks after the funeral and surgery, I was physically feeling better, so I tried to get my life organized. I called the Pediatrician's office to make an appointment and was told that we had been "dismissed" - fired and unable to return...for a 9 week old bill of $20 for a procedure that was fully covered by my insurance! Plus, the office staff who had always been friendly during our NINE YEARS with this practice, were downright rude!

I wrote the doctor, personally, a scathing letter detailing our ordeal and blasting him for being so uncaring about offering a family, going through a difficult time, a second chance. Particularly, since he was LDS and over the years never failed to remind us to teach our children a sense of higher moral purpose by including religion in their lives.

He wrote a hand written letter back apologizing profusely, inviting us to continue with his practice, but understanding if we never wanted to see them again (which we didn't!). He said that his feelings were deeply hurt that this had ocurred and that he was very sorry that they had treated us so badly.

I felt much better after that! I hope that that doctor uses my experience as a lesson that families can have extenuating circumstances that deserve compassion. Apparently, this new system of firing patients after a few weeks/months of an unpaid bill is spreading. I totally see the need for it if a patient is habitually irresponsible, but the office staff went too far in applying it in our case. We never even had a phone message left about the bill. A phone call would have grabbed my attention.

We love our new Pediatrician, and now I see the whole experience as a good thing, but I'm glad that I spoke up to the doctor.

"Only a life lived for others, is the life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein

I would agree to go to your doctor. She/He may not even know this is occuring. However, on the other hand, I understand their "push" for payment as so many people out there don't pay their bills. Its got to be frustrating for you as you are trying to prepare for a baby and don't need this added stress.

There is no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one!

Okay, so an update! I originally called and left a message for the office manager to call me back. She didn't. Three days later, I wrote out a very specific, detailed letter explaining that I was uncomfortable with the way they handled things so aggressively, the fact that I don't have the financial means to make such a large payment each month and that I was so stressed I was actually considering changing OBs.

Two days later I got a call and talked to her. She was really apologetic and told me that she never meant to make me feel uncomfortable. She assured me that they would not refuse me service, they just like to see a progression of payment on the account. I explained to her that due to being sick for the first six months of my pregnancy and taking a LOT of FMLA, I was getting teeny paychecks and just cannot afford it right now. I assured her that I was going to pay off my bill, but it would not be done by delivery. She said that was fine, not to stress out and that she would put a note on my account stating not to ask me for payment when I came in.

I have two appointments next week, so we shall see if this holds up!