Starting a family is a call that has huge costs on a family’s financial burden. Luckily, insurance coverage does ease the burden. Nonetheless, there may be a little-known rule called the ‘birthday rule’ that has a bearing on which parent’s insurance can pay for the child’s delivery and the primary month of life.

Being unaware of this rule created financial stress for a Highland Park couple that cost them 1000’s of dollars.

Bowie Tinio, 20-month-old now, was severely anemic at birth.

“He was probably losing blood within the womb,” Bowie’s father, Mike Tinio said, ABC7 reported.

“It was an advanced delivery. He actually ended up within the NICU for 4 days,” Vanessa Ying, Bowie’s mother added.

Those 4 days within the neonatal intensive care unit result in a bill of $80,000. Ying said that she was told that the primary month of a baby’s life is roofed under the mother’s policy so she increased her insurance advantages in case of an emergency.

“She made sure she got the most effective insurance that she could get, ” Tinio said.

Nonetheless, two months later, the couple received medical bills to the tune of $10,000.

I used to be really confused. I believed we had paid all our hospital bills so I didn’t know why we were getting some additional bills,” Ying said.

Eventually, Ying discovered her insurance company didn’t cover the fee of the delivery coverage and as a substitute her husband’s insurance plan was being considered due to “birthday rule.”

The birthday rule is an insurance practice used to find out the plan which can be used to cover the fee of the child’s delivery when each parents have insurance.

“It isn’t made to make life higher for consumers,” Professor Glenn Melnick with USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy said.

In response to the rule, the insurance plan of the parent whose birthday comes up first in a calendar yr will cover the fee of the pregnancy, no matter the yr one was born. So, age shouldn’t be a think about this, as per EHealthInsurance.

“So if my birthday is in January and my wife’s in February, then the kids get assigned to my policy in January because my birthday comes up first within the yr. There’s this hidden trap that may find yourself costing them 1000’s if not tens of 1000’s of dollars,” Melnick said.

For bowie’s parents, it was a difference of about $7,000. Melnick advised recent parents with dual coverage should research the insurance policies.

“You are not getting double coverage due to birthday rule and so you must determine which policy is the most effective one,” he said.

After 20 months, with help from an advocate in Ying’s human resources office, Ying’s insurance company agreed to pay, which put a stop to the gathering calls.

“If in any respect possible, just be on the identical insurance plan,” Melnick suggested.