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If you’re finding this blog from the World Wide Web, HI! We are an agency that provides in-home newborn care for parents [and their newborns] all over the United States. One of our most popular questions is “How can I get a night nurse covered by insurance?” First let’s quickly review:
What is a night nurse?
A “Night Nurse” is an outdated term that parents use to refer to someone who cares for a newborn overnight while the parents get some much needed rest. Be wary of anyone who calls themselves a night nurse who is not an RN/LPN. At Nightingale Night Nurses our team members are actually Newborn Care Specialists, Postpartum Doulas and RNs. Every one of our providers has a credentialed training!
Back to night nurse insurance coverage: While most agencies currently aren’t able to bill insurance directly for overnight support, we do our best to help the families that we work with get reimbursed! We support hundreds of families each year and have learned a thing or two along the way! Here are the top things we recommend if you are looking to subsidize the cost of in-home care.

Ask Your Insurance Company
I know this sounds obvious. But seriously, ask them. Ask before you start doing your research. Some companies will only pay out for a certified postpartum doula, some will only pay out a certain amount per month. Some states, like Rhode Island, require that an individual provider be registered through the state and/or with their insurance program . These requirements vary state by state and insurance by insurance plan! [Sometimes it feels like it varies month by month too!]
Once you know what type of care your insurance might cover, you can narrow down where you are looking for care. Make sure that both spouses [not just the birthing spouse] ask their insurance companies about their benefits.
Some insurance companies have codes that independent providers can use to bill insurance. Ask your insurance if they have codes for in-home postpartum services and what the limitations are on those codes. [For example: Overnight support is NOT typically classified as dependent care and it is not lactation or birth.]
Ask Your Job
If you have an HSA/FSA, or better yet if you have a representative at your company that you can talk to, ask them what your options are. We have had lots of success with parents paying us directly out of an HSA account or getting reimbursed! If you have this as an option, this is the most straight-forward.
Also, some companies might have other postpartum benefits from companies they work with, like CARROT, Progeny or Maven. Parents that have the CARROT type benefits typically don’t know about it until they are later on in their pregnancy and options for care are limited. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know! We have extensive experience working with CARROT, Maven and Progeny, but it can be a learning curve for other agencies and individuals. You’ll want to find someone that understands the limitations and is willing to be flexible and understanding of the process.
Ask Your Doctor
Just like in 3rd grade, sometimes a doctor’s note can save the day. Ask your primary care doctor and your OBGYN if they have experience supporting parents in getting reimbursed for in-home postpartum care. If you have a history of physical or mental illness this can hold even more weight. Parenting a newborn is exhausting, sleep deprivation is real and many insurance companies will understand the benefit of prevention.
If your baby has any medical issues, you might want to talk to your baby’s pediatrician. This is rare, but we have had a family get reimbursed for some nights because their baby had to be woken every 3 hours to feed for an extended period of time for a medical necessity. The family was no longer physically able to manage so they were able to hire respite care. Sometimes this type of care might need to be provided by an RN or by a care company that offers medical billing.
How we can help you get your night nurse covered by insurance:
We can write blogs about insurance. Kidding! [Mostly kidding.] As of now we don’t work directly with insurance. Not enough insurance companies cover it and we would need to hire staffing to handle working with insurance, which would require us to raise our rates.
Whenever we work with a family, we recommend different avenues that they can look into for reimbursement, and then we can write our invoices in a way that insurance looks favorably upon. Sometimes we are asked to put certain words like “Postpartum support for moms name” or “Care provided by a certified postpartum doula”. Sometimes we are asked to list out dates or times of care provided.
There is nothing we would love more than for all of the families we work with to have a night nurse covered by insurance. The more families that put in requests, hopefully the more insurance companies will recognize the need!
In the meantime, look into your options, and if your insurance does provide benefits~ make sure that you are matched with a provider that works within the limitations of your plan.