Please note that this is an older blog post from two-years ago. I am not currently taking birth doula clients. I recommend:
I am able to offer birth and postpartum doula services in the City of Pittsburgh to a limited number of women and families each year. I give priority to my prenatal yoga, birth and coaching students and clients who wish to invite me to support them during their birth and the weeks after their birth. It is such an honor and joy to provide continuity of care. I also consider attending births for women that may need or desire either a doula with Mandarin Chinese language skills, yoga and meditation based pain management techniques or who are planning a family-centered cesarean birth. I primarily prefer to attend hospital or birth center births.
For postpartum care I can work with families that reside within the City of Pittsburgh only and am not available for overnights.
As I am only able to accept a small number of births to attend each year, it is very important for you to call me as soon as possible to reserve your birth month: 412-855-5692
If I am not available to reserve for your birth or postpartum period, I will always return your call and we can talk about other options.
Insurance and Flexible Spending Account Coverage
Some insurance companies cover doula services.
You may also submit receipts to your medical expense FSA (flexible spending account) to help reduce your costs. Local doula clients have been reimbursed by all known flexible spending accounts.
Doula services are also tax deductible.
How to get Reimbursed for Doula Services
1. Pay your doula in full for her services.
2. Get a receipt from your doula. The receipt will include the following information:
- the doula’s identifying information
- the diagnosis code (V22.2, intrauterine pregnancy)
- the CPT code (99499, Evaluation and Management Services – Labor Support)
- the date and location services were provided
- the mother’s name
- total charge for services
- dates and amounts of payments
- payment method
3. Submit the receipt with a claim form to your insurance or flexible spending account company’s claims department.
4. Within a month, you should receive a response. If you receive a letter denying the claim, do not be discouraged. Prepare a new packet to resubmit to your insurance company for a secondary review, and copy everything in the packet to the insurance company’s CEO explaining why you feel services should be covered (and be sure to point out how much money the insurance company saved because of the services your doula provided). In this re-submission packet, you should include the following:
- another copy of the receipt
- a letter from you to the CEO explaining why you think this should be covered
- a letter from your doula stating the benefits of doula care
- DONA’s summary paper about the research on doula care
- DONA’s Position Paper: The Birth Doula’s Contribution to Modern Maternity Care
- if you doctor or midwife is willing, include a letter from them stating why they feel the additional support of a doula was beneficial.
5. Be persistent. If your claim is denied upon your initial request, call and ask why. If they refer you to your policy, ask them to specify exactly what clause and what wording in your policy excludes doula services.
6. Whether you are reimbursed or not, please tell your doula what kind of response you got from your insurance company. Each time someone requests reimbursement, it tells the insurance companies that this is an important service. Since doulas save insurance companies money, they may consider requests more carefully in future. If you are reimbursed, this is good news for doulas and we always want to know!
[Thank you to the Corvallis Doula Network for providing this very informative process for obtaining insurance reimbursement for doula services and for reminding us that it is important to pursue reimbursement even if you don’t think that you are covered for this service. Your attempt to obtain reimbursement sends a very important message to your insurance company that you would like them to make the health of women and children a priority.]
