Why it’s a Top Cost for Employers
- Maternity care is the number one reason for hospitalization among most employee populations
- The highest cost for maternity care is when a pre-term infant (those born at less than 39 completed weeks of gestation) is treated in the neonatal intensive care unit
- Research shows an early elective delivery increases the chance for complications for babies and their mothers
- An early elective delivery is performed via cesarean and costs for the patient and employer are dramatically higher than if the patient had waited for childbirth to begin on its own or the baby was delivered vaginally.
- Preventing complications and C-sections results in system wide savings. A maternal complication during delivery adds almost $1,000 to the cost of care, while an uncomplicated C-section adds nearly $2,000 to the bill.
You’ll find another page on this website that provides a variety of information, links and videos to help pregnant women make informed decisions and partner with their health care providers. This page is intended to help the Employer support these efforts.
- Provide employees with up-to-date communication about the risks and complications associated with early elective deliveries – use the tools and resources on this page
- Provide hospital comparison tools
- Reviewing benefit design plans to ensure high quality hospital network
- Align incentives for providers and hospitals to adhere to evidence-based practices that improve outcomes for both infants and mothers and decrease the growth in health care spending for maternity care services
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The following materials are made available by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH)
- Download Employer Toolkit
- Preterm Birth and Elective Labor Induction Prior to 39 Weeks
- Maternal and Child Health Plan Benefit Model
- Maternal Depression: What Employers Need to Know
- Maternal Health Balance Scorecard
- Preventing Prematurity and adverse Birth Outcomes
- Support, Inform and Incentivize Employees
to make the best choice for their pregnancy options using comparative effectiveness research.
