Newborn- which insurance gets charged?

Hi,

I have a complicated question. My wife works at a hospital and currently we get our insurance through them (EPO plan)- if we go to her hospital or any network affiliated with them everything is completely covered. The downside is that we live in New Jersey and her hospital is in New York, so for the birth no problem we're delivering there, but for a pediatrician, we'd probably like to go to a doctor that is closer to us.

Now the birth is a qualifying event, so we could switch to my insurance, which would be more flexible (and expensive). However, what I don't want to have happen is to switch and then everything gets billed back to my insurance since it would be retroactive to the day of the birth.

Can someone please help me understand the following:

1) if we all switch to my health plan, which is retroactive to the day of my daughter's birth, does that mean the cost of the delivery will be charged to my insurance instead of my wife's?

2) If I switch myself back to my insurance, and add my daughter to my plan, but leave my wife on her plan, i assume the cost of the delivery will be charged to her plan. However, what about if there are any other costs related to the baby? Who will that get charged to? My wife's plan since she's the original "patient" or my daughter (via my plan) since she'd be the new "patient"?

Essentially asking, how does this work with a newborn since they technically can't be added to a plan until after birth (and yes I know its retroactive).

submitted by /u/BGsf7
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