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Daycare Insurance>Stuck And Frustrated, How Do You Handle Prenatal Care?
justgettingstarted 11:33 AM 07-27-2012
I have Kaiser. I've never had a problem with them until now that I am pregnant and running a daycare. They absolutely do not offer any early morning, evening or weekend prenatal care. I have to hire an assistant, pay for their training and background check and wait at least a couple months for all that to happen and the county to sign off on them before I can even go in for my first appointment! The nurses in women's health are rude and do not understand why I can't just have a family member "come and watch the kids." I'm so frustrated right now! I have to wait over a month (already 7 weeks along) to get an appointment at 3:30 in the afternoon (latest they offer) and have to ask all of my parents to come pick their kids up early for an appointment. I haven't told any of them that I'm pregnant yet so I'm sure they are going to be annoyed.

Have any of you run into this problem? I feel so stuck, my husbands work only offers Kaiser so I can't even switch. I DO NOT want to hire an assistant and deal with withholding taxes and insurance and all that entails but I guess I will have to. The only alternative is to have my husband do the trainings but then he won't be able to see the ultrasounds or hear the heartbeat and that is just awful.
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cheerfuldom 11:39 AM 07-27-2012
Originally Posted by thinkinboutstarting:
I have Kaiser. I've never had a problem with them until now that I am pregnant and running a daycare. They absolutely do not offer any early morning, evening or weekend prenatal care. I have to hire an assistant, pay for their training and background check and wait at least a couple months for all that to happen and the county to sign off on them before I can even go in for my first appointment! The nurses in women's health are rude and do not understand why I can't just have a family member "come and watch the kids." I'm so frustrated right now! I have to wait over a month (already 7 weeks along) to get an appointment at 3:30 in the afternoon (latest they offer) and have to ask all of my parents to come pick their kids up early for an appointment. I haven't told any of them that I'm pregnant yet so I'm sure they are going to be annoyed.

Have any of you run into this problem? I feel so stuck, my husbands work only offers Kaiser so I can't even switch. I DO NOT want to hire an assistant and deal with withholding taxes and insurance and all that entails but I guess I will have to. The only alternative is to have my husband do the trainings but then he won't be able to see the ultrasounds or hear the heartbeat and that is just awful.
I'm sorry. There is only so much you can do. Either pay and train the assistant or leave hubby to do it. I probably would pay and train an assistant because you never know with pregnancies, you might find that you need more help than you thought you would. Just do what you can and accept the rest. Its important to keep your stress level in check now that you are pregnant! If I had to leave hubby out of the appointments, it also wouldnt be that big of a deal for us personally. Besides the big gender ultrasound, neither of us have a huge desire for him to come to every appointment and watch me get weighed and wait for me while I go pee in a cup....its really not that exciting LOL! I understand if you feeldifferently though. A
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youretooloud 11:39 AM 07-27-2012
Hmm...can you find someone who is already providing backup or assistant care somewhere that can come over and do the last two hours of the day for you once a month, then whenever you need it?

Maybe the process will be shorter that way?
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newtodaycare22 11:41 AM 07-27-2012
I don't have any advice but I feel your pain (or I will). We're trying to conceive and I'll also have to be going the assistant route through pregnancy and then after the baby is born. My dr. is great about opening a half hour early or staying a half hour late for me, because of the daycare. That's still a 7:30 appt or 4:30 appt but usually I have less kids to worry about at those parts of the day. Good luck and try not to stress...and congrats. I can't wait to join you.
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DCBlessings27 11:53 AM 07-27-2012
My ob doesn't offer weekend, early morning, or evening appointments. The latest they stay open is 6pm and on Thursdays only--at a location clear across town. I guess I'm fortunate enough to have family in town because my mom has been my sub since starting the daycare and now my mil is going to take over since my sil closed hers.

If it's too much of a pain to hire someone, then the important appointments are the ultrasounds--the first appointment and then one around 20 weeks. You could close for those important ones--you don't have to tell your dcps why you're closed. Yes, my dh loves hearing the heartbeat too, but it's not something he needs to be there for when the other appointments are just to check my blood pressure and see if baby is growing. So, if it saves you stress, then it might be worth just closing for the major appointments and letting your dh watch the kids.

On the other hand, it might be easier to hire someone now for appointments if you plan on having an asst. watch kids after the baby comes. That way, you would know if the asst. is reliable before you're sleep deprived and dealing with a newborn. Plus, if you go into labor early, your asst. will hopefully be waiting for your call. When I had my first child, I was teaching. I had my lessons/worksheets/everything ready, so my substitute just took over on Tuesday after I had dd Monday night. (I know it's not the same exactly, but it's similar.)
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youretooloud 11:54 AM 07-27-2012
Seriously though.... you'd think since your state has these rules for your daycare, they'd have backup providers who want to do subbing for a good fee. It's worth $40 to have someone preapproved to come in so you can have peace of mind.
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Crazy8 12:00 PM 07-27-2012
I don't know what Kaiser is, is it an insurance company or a doctors office or something different? You can't find a different doctor in the plan with better hours???

I went thru 2 pregnancies while running my daycare and only time I closed was for the "big" 20 week ultrasound. Fortunately my ob/gyn had evening hours - it was hard to get the appt's - I scheduled them as far in advance as I could and sometimes had to use their office a little further away to get the appt times I needed but I didn't have anyone who could have been my sub and I also had my own younger kids that I didn't want to have to take with me so 6pm appointments when DH was home was just the best way for me. I know its hard when you are a first time parent, but I didn't find it was that important for my DH to be there for each appointment every month. He only went to the 20 week u/s so honestly, I'd go that route if you can't get later appointments. I know for my clients opening later (like 10am) would be preferred to closing at 3ish if I absolutely had to I'd take their first appt of the day.

Good luck with your pregnancy!!! Hope you can figure it all out!
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justgettingstarted 12:26 PM 07-27-2012
Thanks everyone. This is my second pregnancy but first with the daycare. DH definitely doesn't have to come to each appointment but the first and the 20 or so week appointments I do want him to come. I think I will just close for those as you all suggested and have DH stay with the kids for the others. My mom plans to help once the baby comes but she still lives in another state right now. I would happily take an 8 a.m. or 5 or 6 p.m. appointment buy they are so unreasonable. Their earliest is 9 and the latest is 3:30 and the appointment takes at least 2 hours plus a 30 minute drive, might as well close for the whole day with those choices!

Kaiser is an insurance company that does everything - all doctors, pharmacies, labs, everything in one place with one set of rules. Its one of the major insurance companies in the western states and supposedly all medicine will be setup this way in the future. There are some major advantages though because billing is no problem, we had blue cross or shield several years ago. DH went to the ER with kidney stones and we were getting bills from individual lab techs and doctors for months, it was a total nightmare.
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KEG123 01:51 PM 07-27-2012
Plain and simple, I'd schedule the appointment for either early in the day or late in the day and have the parents pick up early.drop off late. You deserve a couple hours of every once in a while, appointment or not.
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Country Kids 01:55 PM 07-27-2012
Originally Posted by KEG123:
Plain and simple, I'd schedule the appointment for either early in the day or late in the day and have the parents pick up early.drop off late. You deserve a couple hours of every once in a while, appointment or not.
This is what I'm going to start doing! I've decided every 6 months won't hurt the parents if I close an hour early.

Everyone we go to closes at 5:00-Dr., Dentist, Ortho, Eye Dr. Then on top of it alot of them are closed on Fridays are only work 1/2 days. Talk about hard when your trying to schedule for 6 people!
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justgettingstarted 02:39 PM 07-27-2012
This is a great way of thinking about it! I think I'll close for the day and make dentist, eye and hair appointments! I'm way over due for all of these. I've never closed before so it made me nervous but with enough notice I think it's fair.
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Tags:appointments, insurance, prenatal care
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