Birth costs in the United States may vary from $3,300 to over 10 times the amount depending on different hospitals, a latest study states.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, examined the cost of birth for more than 100,000 privately insured women at around 200 California hospitals.
The study authors stated that they wanted to "to examine the between-hospital variation of charges and discounted prices for uncomplicated vaginal and cesarean section deliveries, and to determine the institutional and market-level characteristics that influence adjusted charges."
They studied the patient demographic and clinical characteristics. The results showed on average a woman is charged around $3,296 to $37,227 for a normal delivery, and $8,312-$70,908 for a cesarean section.
The authors also said that the highest hospital charge was over 11 times compared to the least cost, in different hospitals. "Without adjusting for patient characteristics, the hospital with the highest charges would charge about 13 times more than the hospital with the lowest charges for vaginal births, and about 9 times more than the hospital with the lowest charges for cesarean sections," researchers wrote in the study, according to BenefitsPro.
The reason behind the vast difference in the costs could be due to market compulsions and disparities in hospital wage structures.
"We found that hospitals in markets with middling competition had significantly lower adjusted charges for vaginal deliveries, while hospitals with higher wage indices and casemixes, as well as for-profit hospitals, had higher adjusted charges. Hospitals in markets with higher uninsurance rates charged significantly less for cesarean sections, while for-profit hospitals and hospitals with higher wage indices charged more. However, the institutional and market-level factors included in our models explained only 35-36 percent of the between-hospital variation in charges," the researchers noted.
The researchers say that the findings indicate birth costs are greatly influenced by institutional and market-level factors. "Our results also suggest significant room for improved methodologies, incentives and policy interventions for accurately estimating and presenting charges and ultimate costs," the researchers add.
