FAIR Health Launches Cost of Giving Birth Tracker

The cost of giving birth varies from state to state. Now FAIR Health has launched the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker. This is a free, online tool that tracks the cost of giving birth in each state and nationwide.

The maps in the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker show costs for vaginal deliveries and C-sections in each state and across the nation. The costs are median costs. A median is a value in an ordered set of values below and above which there is an equal number of values.

The costs shown are charge amounts and allowed amounts. A charge amount is the amount charged to patients who are uninsured. It is also the amount charged to patients receiving services outside their health plan’s network. An allowed amount is the total fee negotiated between a health plan and a provider for an in-network service. It includes the part to be paid by the patient (the plan member). It also includes the part to be paid by the plan.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker draws on FAIR Health’s database of over 41 billion private healthcare claim records. That is the largest such database in the country. The data come from the September 2022 release of our vaginal delivery and C-section FH^® Total Treatment Cost benchmarks.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker includes costs for services that involve a hospital stay. It also includes those that don’t, such as office visits. It includes costs for the individual professional giving the service, and for the facility where the service is performed.

Services include the delivery itself—for example, labor and delivery room, room and board for the mother, nursery and pharmacy. Also included are items such as anesthesia, ultrasounds, lab work and a breast pump.

Here are some of the findings of the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker:

• The national median allowed amount for C-section is $15,555.61. The national median charge amount is $35,907.33.
• The national median allowed amount for vaginal delivery is $12,968.44. The national median charge amount is $27,371.88.
• Alaska is the state with the highest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $21,525.77. It is followed by (in order from highest to lowest) New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
• Alaska also had the highest median allowed amount for C-sections, $25,518.63. It is followed by New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and California.
• Alabama had the lowest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $7,840.62. It is followed by (in order from lowest to highest) Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
• Alabama also had the lowest median allowed amount for C-sections, $8,913.31. It is followed by Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is the latest addition to FAIR Health’s series of trackers. The series offers geographic windows into healthcare data. The series also includes the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which tracks telehealth use by region across the nation. In July, it will include the Opioid Tracker, which will track opioid abuse and dependence and opioid overdose.

For the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, click here.