Pre-certification for hospital stay

OnederfulWish

The post a while ago about breast pumps prompted me to call my insurance co to see if it's covered.  Sadly, our BCBS insurance only covers manual pumps.

But...the rep on the phone reminded me that I need to obtain pre-certification for the inpatient hospital stay when baby is born in order to avoid a $1000 penalty. I've never been hospitalized before so this was news to me (?may be a pretty standard thing).  She asked if I wanted to do this now and I thought - sure, what the heck?  One less thing I have to worry about later.  It makes it seem so much more real somehow now that I've done that and yes I know it's early and a lot can happen between now and then but I didn't want to rely on my pregnancy brain to remember to do it later.

I'm glad I called about the breast pump or I may have been stuck with a $1000 out of pocket penalty.  Thanks, August mommies!