How much does it cost to have a baby in the United States? It all depends….

Is comparison shopping for birthing services in the U.S. the new reality? Research recently published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine found a wide discrepancy in prices for vaginal births at various hospitals, ranging from less than $1,000 up to $100,000. Prices even varied at the same hospital - sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars. Prices also changed when researchers checked online or asked for a price quote by phone. For the Study, researchers studied 60 hospitals, comparing cash prices posted online and obtained over the phone for vaginal childbirth.

In one example, a top-ranked Minnesota hospital said on the phone that a vaginal birth cost more than $5,000, while a Massachusetts hospital quoted a price of $10,000. At a Houston hospital, the online price tag was more than $20,000, and in Upstate New York, it jumped to $100,000.

Prices listed online and quoted by phone – even at the same hospital - often varied by 50 percent or more. For example, a hospital in Minnesota posted an online price of more than $30,000, but said the price would be about $5,000 when reached by phone. Among the 22 hospitals that provided both online and phone prices for vaginal childbirth, only three listed the same price online that was given by phone.

In 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a federal rule that requires hospitals to list online their standard charges for 70 CMS-specified shoppable services. “Shoppable” means the service can be scheduled in advance.

While the move to “price transparency” is shifting some power to the patients, consumers also need to be aware that price quotes may not include every service, such as physician services, which are often billed separately and can increase the cost significantly.

“With such a great disparity of prices, consumers are turning more often to cost containment services, such as those provided by Epic, to obtain the fairest prices for procedures,” comments Cindy Hill, Vice President of Business Development at Epic Health Solutions. “People have the right to understand how much a procedure is going to cost them out of pocket.”

Source: The Miami Herald and The Washington Post, Sunday, October 15, 2023