FAIR Health Consumer Access

FAIR Health Updates Cost of Giving Birth Tracker

FAIR Health has just updated 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’s 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 46 billion commercial healthcare claim records. That’s the largest such database in the country. The Tracker was launched in June 2023 with data from September 2022. It has now been updated with data from the September 2023 release of our vaginal delivery and C-section FH^® Total Treatment Cost benchmarks.

The 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 updated Cost of Giving Birth Tracker:

• The national median allowed amount for C-section rose 8.9 percent, from $15,555.61 in September 2022 to $16,943.79 in September 2023.
• The national median allowed amount for vaginal delivery rose 7.5 percent, from $12,968.44 in September 2022 to $13,945.72 in September 2023.
• In September 2023, Alaska was the state with the highest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $23,403.48. That was followed by (in order from highest to lowest) New Jersey, Connecticut, Nevada and California. In September 2022, three of these five states were also on this list (Alaska, New Jersey and Connecticut). But the list also included New York and Massachusetts.
• In September 2023, New Jersey was the state with the highest median allowed amount for C-sections, $26,876.00. That was followed by Alaska, New York, California and Connecticut. In September 2022, the same five states were on this list, though in different order. Alaska was highest, followed by New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and California.
• In September 2023, Louisiana had the lowest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $8,922.94. That was followed by (in order from lowest to highest) Alabama, Missouri, Oklahoma and Kentucky. In September 2022, two of these five states were also on this list (Alabama and Louisiana, though Alabama was lowest). But the list also included Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
• In September 2023, Louisiana had the lowest median allowed amount for C-sections, $10,124.35. That was followed by Alabama, Missouri, Maryland and Oklahoma. In September 2022, the same five states were on this list, though in different order. Alabama was lowest, followed by Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is one of FAIR Health’s series of trackers offering geographic windows into healthcare data. The series also includes the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which tracks telehealth utilization by region across the nation, and the Opioid Tracker, which tracks opioid abuse and dependence.

For the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, click here.