ACNM And Contemporary Insurance Services, Inc. Unite To Provide Home Birth Practice Coverage For 11,000 CNMs And CMs In The U.S.

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 07 Sep 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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Effective immediately, American College of Nurse-Midwives (ACNM) and its longstanding partner Contemporary Insurance Services, Inc. and Lexington Insurance Company, which offers the insurance protection, have created an insurance plan for home birth coverage in all 50 states. This measure means that the 5,000+ members of ACNM will now be able to obtain coverage for home birth practice.

"We are extremely pleased that Contemporary can now offer coverage for our members who attend home births," said ACNM President Melissa Avery, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN. "Our members' priority is to provide safe, quality care for their clients. We support the right of women to choose a planned home birth, and we applaud Lexington's recent decision to include home birth practice among their coverage options for our members.

All certified nurse‐midwives (CNMs) and certified midwives (CMs) who are currently insured with Lexington will need to re‐apply to receive home birth practice coverage. The home birth coverage will have limits of $200,000 per claim and $600,000 in the aggregate. The additional premium for home birth practice coverage will be an additional 10 percent of the regular premium for $200,000/$600,000 coverage level. Practicing CNMs and CMs who attend hospital, birth center and home births will be able to maintain different limits as required for each birth setting. Currently, about 97 percent of CNM/CM attended births take place in hospitals, while two percent occur in birth centers and one percent are in homes.

According to Contemporary Insurance Services President Israel Teitelbaum, "It is our expectation that as we gain experience with home births, we will be able to raise the available limits to the same level that is afforded to midwives in hospital and birth center birt practices, and to eliminate the extra premium that is required at this time."

This liberalization comes on the heels of the recent changes that expanded policy benefits to, among other things, include free tails for death, disability and qualifying retirement from practice and tail free step downs from birthing to nonbirthing practices and from ful‐time practice to part‐time practice. Lexington Insurance Company offers the only program that specializes in coverage for certified nurse‐midwives and certified midwives, and has been doing so for more than 12 years. Teitelbaum said, "Other enhancements are being considered and we look forward to continuing to provide an excellent program of insurance coverageto this quality group of health care providers."

ACNM Executive Director Lorrie Kaplan and Israel Teitelbaum, president of Contemporary Insurance Services, Inc. (http://www.cisinsurance.com) are available to discuss the inclusion of home birth coverage in the insurance plan, and the benefits of such coverage for practicing midwives and the families they serve. Please call the ACNM Communications Department at (240) 485‐1822 to arrange interviews.

Source
American College of Nurse-Midwives

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