I’d call the nursery and ask to speak with the social worker at the hospital where the baby is being delivered. they can be a wealth of information/resources.

You could check with the agency about the hospital where the expectant mother is going to deliver and see if they do reduced fees for people paying out of pocket without insurance…many hospitals do this…

I would check on the information that the agency gave you.  Our birthmother also had medicaid and the delivery was covered and the baby’s hospital stay.  We were responsible for the 3-day-old wellness check at the pediatrician in another state. 
Do you have an option for a Flexible Spending Account?  Maybe check with them to see if you can add money to it now to cover the expenses. 
And I would call your insurance company several times while you are away (I know, annoying.  You want to spend all your time with the baby, but insurance companies are horrible).  If you can get a case worker at your insurance company to stay with you on this, that would be great.  At least that would be one person and not someone new every time. 
With our health insurance we have a Health Care Advocate that will do a lot of the leg work for you. 
Good luck, it’s all so exciting!!!

It is against the law not to cover an adopted child.  If they tell you otherwise, take it to the next level.

We adopted out of state and the baby was in the NICU for 6 weeks.  ALL of it was covered by the mothers medicaid.  On top of that if our son ever gets hurt in the state he was born (FL) he is covered under that medicaid until he is 18yrs old.  I would definitely check with the hospital’s social worker as well as your own.

CONGRATS!!!

Hi

Our BM was covered by Mediciad and they covered the baby until the BM signed papers.  I think in the state our daughter was born it was 5 - 7 days before she could sign once released from the hospital… She had a C section and I dont know if that impacted the date for signing…..  both my husband and i were able to add our daughter right away per our insurance under their “qualifying” events guidelines.

We just paid our co-pay’s and the insurance kicked in retro active.

Our son was born in AZ and he was covered under the state medicaid for 30 days after his birth.  But for only medical issues in the state of AZ.  Once we were back in MD everything was covered under our insurance.

every state is different on laws re: covering children.  for the 3 newborns we had, 2 were covered under state medicaid until TPR was completed.  they immediately switched to our insurance.  3rd situation - state medicaid TRIED to take away medicaid since an adoption plan was in place.  luckily that didn’t happen (adoption didn’t happen either, for that matter.)  our insurance kicked in immediately as we had physical custody papers dated day of birth, but medicaid paid for his hospital stay.

bottom line is don’t sign anything until TPR is finished.

If your are insured under an employer, they have to cover the baby from their day of birth.  Once you get custody, send all necessary info to your insurance and then give that info to any healthcare provider that sends you a bill.

Our son’s hospital visit was completely covered under medicaid since his birthmother was on medicaid. She did not sign TPR papers until she was being released from the hospital. Our son was released at the same time as his birthmom.
Our daughter’s birthmother signed TPR papers and was released one day before our daughter was released from the hospital. She was covered under her birthmom’s medicaid until the papers were signed. We were responsible for the extra day she was in the hospital. The hospital waived the cost for that extra day, but my husband is an employee of the hospital and they self insured their employees. They were super nice, even giving us a room to stay in for the night she was still in the nursery.

Your insurance should cover your child from birth even though you do not take custody until 48 hours or more after birth.  Call your insurance agent.

Check with your insurance… ours covered from time of custody…not birth. So baby was on Medicaid until TPR was signed…but we still got stuck with 1 day of baby’s hospital bill from the visiting Pediatrician (baby was there three days as birthmom was admitted for complications). Medicade kept saying it wasn’t pre approved…they paid first and last day, but not second! Also we had to pay all pediatician bills and balance of hospital bills up front (as we were not local) and then fight medicade and the insurance company for reimbursement. Insurance was retroactive to placement/ custody…but you don’t have those documents right away and it takes time to get everything filed. It took us almost 6 months (and many phone calls) to get reimbursed…just a heads up!

I agree with checking with your insurance, with your social worker, etc.  I also adopted out of state. I paid the agreed upon agency fee which included the birth mother’s medical and I think my sons medical (I’d have to go back and check since it’s been almost 3 years). I added my son to my insurance after the 24-hour mandatory waiting period in the state he was born. I didn’t have any unexpected medical costs. I also ended up getting money back because his birth mothers VA Insurance kicked in and covered her medical costs.

Thanks all!! I feel much better and we will take all the advice. 

Your insurance co is full of it!  They have to cover an adopted child retroactive back to birth.  Meaning, if you adopt a child that’s a few days old, they cover from birth, just as they cover if you adopt from birth

We went through this with out ins carrier, asked to speak to a supervisor and had our son added prior to birth (tentatively) and then called once he was born.  We had zero issues with coverage/payment (aside from copays, deductibles, etc.)

We are also a same-sex couple that adopted out of state.

Most states have public assistance for pregnant women that compliments medicaid, which always cracks me up when people have to pay ‘birthmother medical expenses’.

We went through this with our insurance company.  Bottom line, under federal law, adopted children have to be covered from the time of birth by the adoptive parent’s insurance.  What we found in reality is that with our second son, they covered his expenses, including two weeks in the NICU through the birth mother’s Medicaid.  Our first son was born in the same state in a different hospital.  They would not put his expenses through on the birth mom’s Medicaid and told us to contact our insurance provider.  Our insurer told us that they would not cover our son’s medical expenses until after TPR.  But in the state we adopted from, the birth mom has to appear in court to terminate her parental rights which happened when our older son was five days old.  In those five days, he racked up $30,000 worth of medical expenses in the NICU which our insurance company refused to pay.  Remember, insurance companies will do ANYTHING to take your money (ie premiums) but not pay anything back out.  They were breaking Federal Law.  But every state, or nearly every state also has the same thing as state law, which is that in the case of adoption, the adoptive parent’s insurance is required to pay all the medical expenses of the adopted infant starting at birth.  It took us a year to fight this and we had to get our adoption attorney to send them a letter stating the law in the birth state as well as our home state.  Eventually the hospital where our son was born said that they couldn’t wait any longer and that they would have to sue us for the $30,000.  At that point, I called the insurance company (one of many, many calls made during that year) and told them that if we were being sued, then we would turn around and sue them.  Lo and behold, the person on the other end of the phone said, hang on, this may take a while but maybe I can fix this.  He disappeared for about 40 minutes but when he came back, he said that it had all been taken care of.  I confirmed with the hospital later that the insurer had indeed paid our sons medical bills.  Something else to know.  You are not your adopted child’s legal parent until the adoption is finalized.  Therefore, if your insurance refuses to pay, the hospital can’t really come after you since you do not have legal responsibility.  The legal responsibility lies with your insurance company.  I’ll private message you with the legal documents our lawyer sent us stating what the law says.  If the hospital does not bill the birth mother’s Medicaid and comes after you, fight it.  And keep talking to your insurer prior to the birth.  They know the law.  They just don’t want to pay.  That’s the M.O. for most insurers.  Bunch of scumbags if you ask me!!!!