Save $10,000 on birth Health insurer Bupa creates radical new care model

NEW mums will save up to $10,000 in obstetrician’s fees under a revolutionary new care model funded by the country’s largest health fund.

Pregnant women will get 10 visits with a private midwife, three checks by a private obstetrician and have their baby delivered by an obstetrician in a private hospital and get a private room under the Bupa plan that starts this month.

But they will dodge the obstetrician’s booking fee that can cost young families be- tween $4000 and $10,000. What they won’t know is which of 11 obstetricians will deliver their baby at the Mater Private Hospital.

The gap-free birth service is being offered by Hatch Private Maternity in Brisbane, which employs 11 obstetricians and five midwives who work on a roster system.

By the end of 2018 Hatch plans to roll out similar services in NSW and Victoria.

Parents who do not belong to health fund Bupa pay a set gap fee of $990 but the business has struck a deal with the nation’s largest health fund to provide gap-free private births.

Women have been abandoning the private health system to have their babies in public hospitals to escape excessive obstetricians fees, with some doctors now fearing they have priced themselves out of the market.

New research by health fund comparison business Finder.com found almost half (48 per cent) of expectant couples have private health insurance which covers pregnancy, but only half that many end up delivering in a private hospital.

Health fund membership is also declining as premiums rise above inflation and gap fees grow. Funds are concerned if families don’t join a health fund when they start a family they may never join up.

Bupa Health Insurance Managing Director Dwayne Crombie said there was no element of US style managed care in the new scheme and the health fund had no say at all on the clinical care provided.

It was the shared care between midwives and obstetricians that made the model cheaper than seeing an obstetrician for every visit, he said.

Siobhan McNabb is 38 weeks pregnant and a Bupa member and will be one of the first women to benefit from the gap-free birth scheme.

The self-employed lighting and interior designer says it means she will have thousands of extra dollars to help cover her time off work after the birth.

The 43-year-old first time mum had been seeing another private obstetrician and was facing a $7000 out-of-pocket fee for her birth.

“I think this is a fantastic opportunity,” she said.