Nobody tells us what the order of operations has to be, which makes the process a tad confusing.

Here's my documented steps.

When discharged, the hospital will provide a document indicating that a child was born at that hospital. (Exact phrasing may vary.) There may be a line at the bottom that says something like:

At the request of the parent(s), a social security number for the child was applied for and transmitted by this facility.

At least this is how MGH handled the SSN thingy.

The SSN is super important, as apparently, on the health insurance that I was on, having an SSN is necessary to add a dependent onto an insurance plan.

Here's the kicker though: My insurance plan gives us 31 days to update plan after a "life change". Partners Healthcare (which manages MGH) has a form letter that says:

If you have requested a Social Security Card to be applied for (through the hospital) you should receive it within 3-6 weeks of your child's date of birth.

The phrasing is frustrating, as it smells like a "cover my posterior" line that lawyers added in. If the card arrives 3 weeks after, then I only really have 1 week to add the child onto the health insurance plan.

So in any case, keep checking the mail.

Once the SSN arrives, add child to health insurance plan, and adjust the options as necessary.