New Study Examines Early Elective Newborn Deliveries in 22 State Medicaid Programs

Early elective deliveries can lead to poor health outcomes for both women and their newborns, while generating additional costs for patients and insurance providers, according to results of a new AHRQ-funded study that examined the incidence of early elective deliveries in 22 State Medicaid programs. Medicaid pays for up to 48 percent of all births in the United States each year. Early elective deliveries are non-medically indicated labor inductions or cesarean deliveries of infants with a confirmed gestational age of less than 39 weeks. The 22 states that participated in the project provided data on elective deliveries in the period 2010–2012. After finding that approximately 9 percent of Medicaid single births were early elective deliveries, researchers estimated that 160,000 early elective Medicaid deliveries nationwide occur each year. The study offers additional evidence and tools to further reduce the number of such deliveries. An article and abstract, “Early Elective Deliveries Accounted for Nearly 9 Percent of Births Paid for by Medicaid,” were published in the December 2014 issue of Health Affairs.

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2014 Dec 1;33(12):2170-8. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2014.0534.

Early elective deliveries accounted for nearly 9 percent of births paid for by medicaid.

Fowler TT1, Schiff J2, Applegate MS3, Griffith K4, Fairbrother GL5.

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Abstract

Reducing early elective deliveries has become a priority for Medicaid medical directors and their state partners. Such deliveries lead to poor health outcomes for newborns and their mothers and generate additional costs for patients, providers, and Medicaid, which pays for up to 48 percent of allbirths in the United States each year. Early elective deliveries are non-medically indicated labor inductions or cesarean deliveries of infants with a confirmed gestational age of less than thirty-nine weeks. This retrospective descriptive study reports the results of a perinatal project, led by the state Medicaid medical directors, that sought to coordinate quality improvement efforts related to early elective deliveries for the Medicaidpopulation. Twenty-two states participated in the project and provided data on elective deliveries in the period 2010-12. We found that 75,131 (8.9 percent) of 839,688 Medicaid singleton births were early elective deliveries. Thus, we estimate that there are 160,000 early elective Medicaiddeliveries nationwide each year. In twelve states, early-term elective deliveries declined 32 percent between 2007 and 2011. Our study offers additional evidence and new tools for policy makers pursuing strategies to further reduce the number of such deliveries.

Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.