Pregnancy and UnitedHealthcare
Hi BPN, I am looking for feedback from anyone who has gone through a pregnancy while on a United Healthcare plan. I am in the midst of changing jobs and as a result will be switching from Kaiser to UHC. Kaiser isn't perfect, but I had a very good experience with my last pregnancy and I'm nervous about moving to UHC based on its reputation for denying claims... I would love to hear from others about their experiences with UHC, especially with regards to prenatal/delivery coverage.
- What kind of UHC plan did you have? HSA? PPO?
- What were your out of pocket costs like? And did you end up with any big surprises on your bills?
- Did you like your OB or midwife, and how did you go about finding them?
- Which hospital did you deliver at, and how did you go about choosing it? What was that experience like/would you recommend the hospital?
- Did your doctor attend your birth? Someone else from their practice?
- Anything you wish you'd known or done differently when choosing your plan?
Some backstory: I'm not pregnant, but I hope to be in the next year or two, and so I am trying to be clear-headed about how this change to UHC would impact a future pregnancy/delivery, AND the costs I might incur. For the last 4 years I've been with Kaiser, and it has been a very positive experience, including a great delivery at Kaiser Oakland. I was lucky to have one of their platinum plans through my previous employer and paid very little out of pocket for my prenatal care and hospital delivery. I also really like my Kaiser OB and have found Kaiser's integrated model to be quite convenient. Some of my concerns are more sentimental (I really wanted to stay with my Kaiser OB and midwives from my first birth), but I also am worried about quality and continuity of care, the logistics of navigating a more "open" system where I need to find both an OB practice and a hospital, and the financial implications of switching to an HSA or PPO plan that from what I can tell is probably not getting me the same level of coverage that I had with my Kaiser HMO.
Thanks in advance for all feedback!
Parent Replies
Hello!
I am so glad you've had such a positive experience with Kaiser! I think you may find that having a PPO has some upsides - lots of flexibility and choice for instance! I am not philosophically pro-UHC as a company, but I have not personally had any experiences of denied claims. I have a 2yo and am currently pregnant and have had a UHC PPO for the last 15 years or so. I don't know what our exact plan is, but it's a good one, my husband works at a big tech company.
I had an unplanned c-section, was induced, in both L&D and recovery for several days, and my bill was something like $100k total. I paid somewhere around $1500 out of pocket. During pregnancy, I have had to pay some copays - maybe $20 per visit? and have had to pay some higher copays for additional procedures like the NT ultrasound - which was maybe more like $125. Generally no scary costs - most everything is covered.
I am a patient at Sutter in Berkeley (used to be Milvia, now it is at Adeline) and have been really happy with their care. All the doctors at their office deliver at Alta Bates in Berkeley, so you don't have to find a hospital on your own. This is the main practice in the area, and I wanted to deliver at a hospital close to home. I also really like their midwifery care model, and Alta Bates is a "Baby-Friendly" hospital. I found Alta Bates and their L&D nurses and staff to be wonderful, and am happy to be delivering there again in February.
I was in L&D for almost 2 days so I saw a lot of midwives and doctors. My own doctor is not the one who ultimately performed my c-section. I understand this to be pretty typical in the area. Like most of the OBGYN offices in the area, they are quite busy, so I have chosen to form a consistent relationship with a midwife this time around, and I haven't had a problem getting appointments with her.
I gather that for people who live in Oakland/Berkeley it is most common to deliver at Kaiser Oakland or Alta Bates. I have friends who delivered in SF, and were happy with their care, but that felt way too far for me, and I have also heard good things about John Muir but I think delivery would be in Walnut Creek which also feels inconvenient.
Good for you for getting on top of these changes ahead of having a baby! I know it must feel overwhelming to not be able to do the same thing as last time. I hope you find that it isn't such a daunting change.
Hi! I went through my first pregnancy on United Healthcare through my husband's job. He had a great plan-- $10 copays, nearly everything covered (even NT scans and additional screening required), though we had some hiccups around genetic testing costs. The majority of those were attributable to Natera, not UHC. Insurance-wise, I had a great experience using a PPO. Having different options for location was great. Cost will obviously vary by your plan, and I found it helpful to review the plan and ask UHC customer service about any coverage questions in advance-- they gave me extra detail and clarification that was not in the somewhat basic information available on the UHC portal.
I started by selecting where I wanted to deliver, and I found that John Muir was the highest rated L&D department in easy driving distance at the time. Because I live in the hills, it took the same amount of time for me to get to my doctor's appointments (20 min) in Orinda as it would have to Alta Bates. The hospital in Walnut Creek was about a 30 minute drive, which isn't too bad, though we were never stuck in rush hour traffic trying to get there. It was worth the drive-- my doctors were a small, well-trained group from John Muir Obstetrics & Gynecology, which has a few different offices in Orinda (closest), Berkeley, and I think they opened a new one in San Ramon. You see all of the doctors during the course of your pregnancy because you never really know who will be on call when baby comes, and I felt comfortable with all of them. I had an unplanned C section, so a different doctor than my primary one performed the surgery. She was amazing, and my recovery was phenomenal. My primary doctor checked in on me regularly. I did not have a midwife-- I didn't want anyone besides my husband present, though we both read The Birth Partner in advance and he attended all my appointments.
I thought L&D at John Muir was exceptional. The postpartum care was good, though I had some issues with every nurse giving different breastfeeding advice and feeling totally at sea. I have heard online about women who don't feel listened to or don't have their birth plan respected. I never once felt that way-- the doctors were respectful, and I was involved in decision-making, That made a big difference when the baby had other ideas and we had to pivot. Even with the pivot to an unplanned C, I had a positive birth experience and will rely on the same OBGYNs and John Muir again for baby number two.