Lately I have had a few challenges arise that are trying to teach me to just "roll with the punches." I don't recall if I blogged about the changes at work but I discovered MORE changes this week that affect my pregnancy and maternity leave. So roll with the punches I must. I need my job!
The first change we discovered a few weeks ago was that our current health coverage with the HMO was being discontinued effective Jan 1. This didn't make either of us very happy since I'll be 37 weeks pregnant as we cross into 2010. Potentially there is a chance I could still have a baby in 2009. Since Clay and I work for the same organization, we are limited on options for healthcare. We had multiple worries with this switch. The first was my doctor. There was no information on whether or not she would sign up for the PPO coverage we would now have. Since then we have learned that she SHOULD be "in network" by the time we deliver as the contract has been signed but the website for the PPO hasn't been updated yet. The second immediate concern was the cost. On the HMO it was going to be a flat $300 to deliver. Not bad if you ask me. It was truly part of the reason we were on the HMO in the first place. However, the new PPO requires both the baby and I to meet $500 deductibles and then pay 10% of the remaining bill. SO that's at least $1,000 PLUS 10% of the remaining bill (which I have no idea how much that will be). Throws a wrench in our budgeting plans so late in the year. We were already trying to budget so that I could take 4 weeks unpaid during my maternity leave.
Then yesterday, I discovered another benefit change at work that wasn't adequately announced or promoted (but I won't rant on how poorly our HR dept has addresses these issues.) As part of their "inclusion" efforts so everyone feels treated the same, they are ADDING a 5 day waiting period to the disability leave before any benefits will be paid. UGH! Seriously! As an exempt employee I was scheduled to receive 100% from day 1 of my maternity leave. But now, if I want to be paid for the first 5 days (waiting period) I have to use PTO. Now I shouldn't complain because I indeed will be carrying over approximately 8 days of PTO, but I had hoped to stock pile those days for after I return to work from maternity leave. Now I will be using 5 of them just to get paid. I feel screwed! I did have a very long conversation with the HR rep for disability leave as there are so many unknowns with Little Bean's arrival and so many different rules apply if I deliver in 2009 vs 2010. Needless to say the headache magnifies IF I happen to deliver ACROSS the new year and end up in the hospital both in 2009 AND 2010. Goodness! Oh well, guess I need to learn to roll with the punches. I could not be more thankful for Little Bean and I'm sure I will be overjoyed with his/her arrival that I won't even think about all these changes.
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Oh man, health insurance is such a pain!! We ended up having to pay $3800 to have Tyson (we had NO idea it was going to be that much, b/c certain bills were in-network and certain bills were out-of-network). Then our insurance carrier dropped BroMenn (they don't cover OSF either) so we had to switch to the only other option, which covers BroMenn. We're in the same boat as you, having no idea how much it will cost to deliver this next baby. There's some out-of-pocket maximum, but some amounts don't even count towards that, so what's the point of having it!!! Uggh. Makes me mad just thinking about it. Maybe you will get lucky and deliver in 2009 and not have to worry about the new changes!
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