Note: Lead author Renee Y. Hsia, MD, was supported through the CTSI K Scholars program.
Women giving birth in California can face a huge cost difference in their hospital bills, according to a new UC San Francisco study.
The study found that California women giving birth were charged from $3,296 to $37,227 for an uncomplicated vaginal delivery, depending on which hospital they visited. For a C-section, women were billed between $8,312 and nearly $71,000. Few of the women in the study had serious health issues and most were discharged within six days of admission.
For the more than half million women who give birth at California hospitals every year, medical costs are difficult to predict and can result in differences of thousands of dollars among facilities even in the same geographic area, the researchers said.
“Unlike other industries, the way health care is priced and paid for is notoriously opaque, making it difficult for patients to act as educated, price-comparing consumers,” the authors wrote.
The study was released online January 16 in BMJ Open.
Read more at UCSF.edu