Search results for: “childbirth”
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Transparency Data Highlight Wide Variation in the Price of Childbirth
Read more: Transparency Data Highlight Wide Variation in the Price of ChildbirthChildbirth is the most common reason for an inpatient hospital admission among people with employer-sponsored insurance. Despite how routine it is, the price of giving birth can vary widely depending on where you live, which hospital you use, and which insurer you have. Using Transparency in Coverage (TiC) data, we set out to better understand…
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Shorter Stays, Lower C-Section Rates, and Fewer System-Affiliated Hospitals Contribute to Lower Childbirth Costs in Rural Areas
Read more: Shorter Stays, Lower C-Section Rates, and Fewer System-Affiliated Hospitals Contribute to Lower Childbirth Costs in Rural AreasChildbirth costs, outcomes, and access to care differ between rural and urban hospitals. Rural areas have fewer short-term general acute care (GAC) hospitals, with only about 35% of all GAC hospitals operating in rural locations in 2023. As rural hospitals continue to face financial distress, many unprofitable service lines, such as hospital-based obstetric service units…
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From Prenatal to Postpartum Care, Total Spending on Childbirth Averaged over $25,000 among ESI Enrollees
Read more: From Prenatal to Postpartum Care, Total Spending on Childbirth Averaged over $25,000 among ESI EnrolleesThe high and rising costs of childbirth pose a financial challenge to many families. One study found that 60% of pregnant and postpartum women reported having difficulty affording care, with women enrolled in commercial insurance more likely to report affordability challenges than those with public insurance. To understand the average total spending on childbirth related…
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The Price of Childbirth Can be Twice as High Even in the Same Hospital
Read more: The Price of Childbirth Can be Twice as High Even in the Same HospitalAccording to HCCI’s data, the price of a hospital admission for childbirth among birthing people with employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) varies by a factor of three across hospitals within a local area. Even within the same hospital and within the same type of delivery, some births cost twice as much as others. Different prices for…
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Growing Rate of Billed Emergency Department Use in Childbirth Inpatient Admissions
Read more: Growing Rate of Billed Emergency Department Use in Childbirth Inpatient AdmissionsA recent KHN article reported on the growing presence of “obstetric emergency departments” (OBEDs) in U.S. hospitals. Hospitals suggest that OBEDs, which are generally located within labor and delivery departments and often indistinguishable from standard triage rooms, allow pregnant patients with potential emergent conditions (or when they are in labor) to be seen quickly by hospitalists.…
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Average Payments for Childbirth Among the Commercially Insured and Fee-for-Service Medicaid
Read more: Average Payments for Childbirth Among the Commercially Insured and Fee-for-Service MedicaidIt is well-established that the rates hospitals and physicians are paid to provide health care services are significantly lower in Medicaid than in private health insurance. In this brief, we provide new data on this payment gap in the context of childbirth, an especially relevant area of care since Medicaid and ESI together cover the…
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The Price of Childbirth in the U.S. Tops $13,000 in 2020
Read more: The Price of Childbirth in the U.S. Tops $13,000 in 2020As HCCI has previously documented, the price of childbirth in the U.S. is higher than in many other countries. When prices are high, patients with health insurance pay directly through coinsurance (i.e., cost-sharing calculated as a percent of what their insurer pays for the service) and over time, as higher prices charged to insurers are…
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Understanding Variation in Spending on Childbirth Among the Commercially Insured
Read more: Understanding Variation in Spending on Childbirth Among the Commercially InsuredChildbirth is the most frequent reason for an inpatient admission in the United States, and Cesarean-section (C-section) is the most common operating room procedure in an inpatient hospital stay. Among people who get insurance through an employer, the combination of labor, delivery, and newborn care makes up nearly one in six dollars spent on inpatient…
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Leveraging Transparency in Coverage (TiC) Data for Health Care Price Analysis
Read more: Leveraging Transparency in Coverage (TiC) Data for Health Care Price AnalysisThe Transparency in Coverage (TiC) regulations have introduced unprecedented visibility into negotiated health care prices in the United States. By requiring insurers to publish machine-readable files containing payer–provider contracted rates starting in 2022, the policy has created a new data source for studying price variation. However, the scale, inconsistency, and missing information within the TiC…
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Severe Maternal Morbidity Increased by 25% from 2017-2021 among those with Employer Sponsored Insurance
Read more: Severe Maternal Morbidity Increased by 25% from 2017-2021 among those with Employer Sponsored InsuranceThe CDC defines Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM) as ‘unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant short- or long-term consequences to a woman’s health.’ These outcomes are largely preventable and are an important indicator of maternal health care quality. The CDC reports that SMM has steadily increased in recent years, and the consequences…