Seeing midwife at GPs for combined care?

ElleToro

Hi, I'm semi-private for my pregnancy (first), and have been on combined care. My GP has a midwife at their practice who I see instead of the GP when I visit. I've been very lucky with this pregnancy so haven't had any problems as such, currently 31 weeks.

Had my visit this morning, and as usual saw the midwife, asked her about a small pregnancy related problem that has developed, she said to also speak to the doctor, which I did. On the way out, the receptionist called me back and charged me for the doctors visit as she said that 'the doctor isn't covered under the antenatal visit'.

Is this right? It's my first time seeing the doctor, and I feel that it's pregnancy related, so I'm feeling a little off about being charged for it. Do you know if it's right to only see the midwife each time instead of the GP?

January

You can insist on seeing the GP I think, but it's just an antenatal visit, just observations, bp, doppler check, palpation etc. Anything outside of that he can charge for.

Roesy

I see a midwife for the antenatal checks in my GPs but when I make an appointment with the GP during pregnancy I don't get charged for these.

lazygal

The HSE is paying for a GP service. It's pretty sneaky of a practice to outsource this to a midwife. Whatever about your preference, you are entitled to GP not midwife care.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/health/women_s_health/maternity_and_infant_welfare_services.html
This refers to GP-not nurses or midwives in the practice.

Keane2baMused

You are entitled to see the GP and no they cannot charge you for pregnancy related issues.

It's not your fault or problem the midwife had to refer you to the doctor. He is the one who insisted you see her in the first place.

lazygal

January wrote: »

You can insist on seeing the GP I think, but it's just an antenatal visit, just observations, bp, doppler check, palpation etc. Anything outside of that he can charge for.

Not if you develop pregnancy related illnesses. I wasn't charged on my second pregnancy when I developed fatigue, GP signed me off work for a week, then a second visit until I was due to go on maternity leave, and I wasn't charged at all. In the link I posted it says the same, if something is related to the pregnancy the visit is free. They get paid from the HSE for this so it's not like they're doing it from their own pocket. And I say this as someone who hasn't even used the GP visit card for my children yet.

pwurple

That's not right at all... Any visit to the gp when i was pregnant was not charged for.

Did you fill out the hse form at the start with the gp, allowing them to charge the hse? Or was the midwifes name on there.

snoopy84

My GP hasn't charged me since I got pregnant, even when I got bronchitis at Christmas which wasn't really pregnancy related. And he insists that he sees me everytime rather than a midwife ( I'm not a high risk pregnancy)

Oh i had to pay for the whooping cough vaccine alright, just the vaccine though not appointment

borderlinemeath

Any of the surgery appointments I had were with the one of the practice midwives, but one of the practice doctors always came in and signed off and asked were there any questions or concerns. The only extra thing I ever had to pay for was the whooping cough vaccination, it wasn't that by any chance? (At 31 weeks you're in the window for it), however I was only charged for the vaccination itself, rather than the consultation.

ElleToro

Thank you for the feedback! No, it wasn't for whooping cough vaccine, just for one of the more unglamourous pregnancy issues

I'll give the surgery a call and ask them what their policy is, should have done that yesterday really but was a little taken aback by it. Thank you for the links also, it does seem like it should be a GP that you see.

Not that I'm aiming to be but I wonder what would happen if I did have to get a cert for work, would they charge you for that also. I'll ask to see the GP for the next appointments in any case. Hard to know what to do when it's the first pregnancy and you're not sure of the 'done thing'!

Thanks again x

dori_dormer

My sister had this in her gps practice, but she just saw the nurse not even a midwife!

As far as I'm aware you only get about 6 free visits to the gp under the combined care scheme. Some doctors are stricter on this than others.

It's possible they are using this money to pay for the midwife visits, and therefore any extra appointments would have to be paid for.

I know I wouldn't be happy that my combined care, that pays for a gp visit, only gets me a midwife or nurse visit. But you'll have to take it up with your insurance and then your doctor

lazygal

dori_dormer wrote: »

But you'll have to take it up with your insurance and then your doctor

It isn't an insurance rule. All GPs who agree to treat pregnant women under the HSE scheme are paid for that service. I have VHI and went fully private so only saw my GP twice on my first pregnancy (once to confirm it and the second time for the whooping cough vaccine) and on my second I saw him twice, both for pregnancy related fatigue for which I was signed off work. None of the visits had any connection to my insurance provider. Only my consultant needed insurance details.

Penny Dreadful

I did combined care on my first pregnancy and only saw the GP once. I didn't mind that I saw the nurse as the pregnancy was fine and I saw a doctor (granted an NCHD) at each of the hospital visits.
I was never charged for any of my visits though.

This time around I didn't opt for combined care as am doing fully private at the hospital but having had to get bloods done for my rheumatologist something was a little off with those and they asked me back because I was pregnant. They did full bloods again and a thorough check on the baby and didn't charge me for that.
I was there a few weeks ago for the whooping cough vaccine and pneumonia one too and I was charged only €25.00