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I completely forgot how much I hate the beginning process of surrogacy. I have spent more time dealing with records and insurance than I care to. First of all the risk company that goes through your insurance policy to see if it will be covered had a conference call with me and the insurance company. She initially said usually you just have to be on there to give them permission to speak with us on your behalf then you can hang up and we will continue the conversation. Well that is not how this went I had to stay on the phone the whole time (Over and hour). The person at the insurance said that if they code it a surrogacy pregnancy then they will deny it. When asked where in the policy it states that she could not give us an answer. So we talked to the supervisor whom said pretty much the same stuff. When the risk lady asked about codes they said if you give them a specific code she would check it against her list to see if they would cover it. The surrogacy code (yes there is such a thing!) is not on the list so she rattled another code and when we were told that is not on the list either she said "Oh you won't cover a single live vaginal birth either. You just said she has maternity coverage." They did not know what to say! So they said they would contact the plan administrator and ask for clarification and get back to us in 48 to 72 business hours. That was last week so I should know for sure if they will cover it or not this week. But I did agree to lower my fee a bit if they have to get a separate insurance policy to help make up the difference. It sucks because I have really good insurance now! So then I hear from the agency about the clinic and we need more records! First I need the delivery records from the twins, apparently when I got the records from my OB they do not include those you have to get them from the hospital. Well luckily I still can log into the portal for all my health information but I still had to request the documents I needed. When I sent the request it said it could take up to 30 days for me to get them. I was like dang we could be waiting again. I was also curious how I got through the last surrogacy without them. Someone should have picked up on this before right? Wrong! So anyways I sent the request this morning and actually got them this evening so I didn't have to wait. Next they needed the records from the fertility clinics I went to for both my surrogacies. The clinic for the twins told me they charge for a copy of them a flat rate of $18 then $.50 a page for the first 50 pages then $.25 after that. So my file would cost $59.75! So I asked the agency are you sure you don't have a copy of them? I know you asked for the last surrogacy so surely we took care of that before we moved on. Well after digging and digging they finally found them buried in their emails somewhere so that saved us from having to pay for the new ones. I sent a records release to the second clinic and should get them this week! So I have had to get my records from my boys, the twins, the singleton and not one but two fertility clinics. Needless to say I asked for them to send me copies of all of them so I can keep them safe. In case we do this again I will have them all and will not have to go through this. So we are getting closer to the match process! I can't wait to have all the bureaucracy behind me!

Records

Well I have spent the last two weeks trying to get all the records and insurance stuff together. It was a lot of work to get it all. Back and forth between the agency to me and me to the doctors offices. Apparently they did not have my records from my own children so I had to work magic to get them. I hadn't been to that office for like 10 years but they came through and had them all sent over. I really appreciate everyone that had to pitch in to get them all. Then comes insurance I enrolled and registered on their site. I asked HR at John's work if I could get a copy of the booklet. She said they are only online. I assumed that she meant on the insurance companies website (I have had to go there and get them before). However I couldn't find them, so I chatted on the website to ask where I could find them. They said they aren't on there and we had to ask HR for one. John went in and asked her for one she said she didn't have one. So I called the insurance company to see if they could point me in the right direction. They said they don't have access but if there was a website from his job where he went to enroll for his benefits that is usually where you could find them. Well I finally located and sent it to the agency to be reviewed. Hopefully I will be matched really soon! I will keep you informed!