Reply to Federal Health Benefits - BCBS Standard or Basic for Maternity and Birth Delivery

Forum Index » Expectant and Postpartum Moms

Reply to "Federal Health Benefits - BCBS Standard or Basic for Maternity and Birth Delivery"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]You are wrong about the deductible, OP. First, even though your family deductible is $700, you as an individual only have a $350 deductible, so you will stop paying deductibles if either you hit $350 or your whole family hits $700 as a group--whichever happens first.

BUT there is no deductible for maternity care under BSBC Standard. This is why 12:41 PP was able to pay nothing for both of her deliveries under Standard with Preferred Providers.

For Basic, it would be more expensive, because you would pay $150 admission for your delivery. But the other items listed by PP, post-partum care, OB visits and well pediatrician visits are all included free of charge under Basic, again assuming that you are using a Preferred Provider.

Circumsion is a separate benefit from maternity care, because it is the baby's surgery. Under BCBS Standard, the deductible would apply. If the baby or family hit the deductible before the procedure (not likely), you would then pay 15% co-insurance on the procedure. Under BCBS Basic, you would have no deductible, but a $150 co-pay for surgeon and 30% co-insurance if any billable supplies were used during the surgey. Hard to imagine a second surgeon on something as simple as a circumsion, but theoritically, yes, a second surgeon means a second co-pay under Basic.

Overall, one of the biggest risk under Basic is that the baby is admitted to the NICU for several days, because hospital co-pays  for non-maternity care are much higher for multiple day stays under Basic then Standard. Also, if someone needs a lot of additional surgeries and procedures, Standard may save money, because Standard has lower co-pays and carries 15% co-insurance instead of 30%. However, for most people, Basic is significantly cheaper, as long as you can use Preferred Providers.

I recently switched from Standard to Basic, so I have spent a lot of time with the benefits brochure! They also have a hotline where they basically walk you through it. Call the customer care line and they will give you the plan comparison 1-800 number. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics