How Do I Get “Baby Bargains for Clothes, Furniture, Toys and More?

After the birth of your baby you will receive a bill from the hospital with a balance due after insurance. Instead of blindly paying this amount call the number on the bill and request an itemized listing. According to http://www.maternityadvantage.com more than 90% of hospital bills have errors. When you get your itemized listing of charges go through it, find the errors, contact the financial office to have them removed, and then pay what’s left.

Tags: hospital bill baby bargains, hospital bill errors
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Finally, if you are having a healthy, normal pregnancy consider using a birthing center instead of a hospital. The average cost of prenatal care and delivery via a birthing center is about half that of a hospital. Birthing centers offer similar payment plans and sliding scales that hospitals offer. Some are even attached to the local hospital so that in the unlikely event of an emergency, mother can be quickly moved to the hospital. Clearly, this isn’t for everyone. Many people chose this option to have a more natural birth as opposed to the financial benefits. To read more about this and search for a birthing center in your area go here
http://americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/birthingcenter.html

Tags: maternity coverage, maternity insurance
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Consider other maternity plans that are not true insurance. Because they are discount plans instead of insurance, pre-existing conditions do not matter so you can apply even when pregnant. The top plan specializing in maternity coverage is Maternity Advantage (http://www.maternityadvantage.com). Another source that offers broader coverages, but slightly smaller discounts for pregnancy can be found http://www.ameriplan.com. Another interesting concept is one in which the total bill for all members is equally divided so you help pay when others need it most and they help when you need it. The idea is that you end up paying far less than a traditional insurance plan.  This can be found here http://www.medi-share.org.

Tags: maternity coverage, maternity insurance
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If you cannot afford maternity coverage, your maternity coverage isn’t very good, or are already pregnant and therefore cannot add maternity coverage, here is the first of my top 3 suggestions for ways to find baby bargains for maternity and delivery. Talk to the hospital financial office. Many hospitals offer payment plans or even sliding scales based on your income.  Most people don’t even know they are available so they are not often utilized.

Tags: maternity coverage, maternity insurance
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I’ve decided to experiment with a daily tip posted to my blog. Some of this has been discussed in some form probably close to a year ago. I’m just going to start at the beginning and share various bargain tips and advice. Here’s today’s tip…

Talk to your employer about adding short-term disability insurance prior to getting pregnant. Many work-based policies cover 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 weeks for c-section if you deliver 10 months after taking out the policy. This works for normal, healthy pregnancies and is not sickness, complication, or emergency based. But it is also good to have in place if you do end up with complications prior to delivery and for example get put on bed rest. They are fairly inexpensive and if you add this policy right before getting pregnant you will definitely come out ahead. These plans often pay in addition to any sick or vacation time you have saved up so this is great extra help to pay for hospital bills. The bad news is that if you are already pregnant it is probably too late.

Tags: maternity leave, short-term disability
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