More information about insurance than you want to know

I called my secondary insurance company today and was transferred to the national "care coordination" center, to try to line up the "gap exception" so that my midwife's services will be covered.  Turns out there are two midwives in Austin authorized by the plan, but neither of those midwives are authorized to deliver, so hopefully the gap exception for me will be approved.  It was last time and the person I talked to just copied and pasted all of the old request's information into the new one.

I'm supposed to get a coverage determination in the mail-- no timeframe for that, so I am supposed to call at my convenience to follow-up.  Hmm.  This first call took about 30 minutes, so we'll see when that becomes convenient again.

So now I still have to call the primary insurance company, which will be the bigger headache.  As I recall, last time I had to get a referral from my PCP.  I hope that's the last hoop to jump!

Edited to add:

Ok, now I've talked to the other company as well.  This one had me go through the pre-authorization department.  Same deal, basically, where I am to call at my convenience to get an update, though this rep (DeKwan?) was able to tell me it would be about 72 hours.  I think I'll just plan to have another day of insurance fun next Monday, and I'll follow up with both companies.  Ideally, I get good news all around.  If not, I'll appeal it and I think I'll be successful-- just more legwork involved.

Edited again:

Primary company called back.  Turns out they added the big birthing center (Austin Area Birthing Center) where Andie was born as an in-network provider, so that could throw a wrench in things.  Bleh.  I think they are authorized on the other plan too, now that I look.  Oh, what a pain.

Throwing a wrench in things, my primary company is switching over to a different carrier on September 1.  So this whole authorization process would start over.  Given that, I elected to close the pre-authorization request and just go under out-of-network benefits for this first appointment.  I'll start the process over again with the new company in a month or so.  Yippee.