Impact of gestational age at delivery on the economics of triplet pregnancy

✍ Scribed by Fergal D. Malone; David Chelmow; Achilles Athanassiou; Mary E. D'Alton

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 220 KB
• Volume: 8
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1057-0802
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6661(199911/12)8:6<256::aid-mfm5>3.0.co;2-4

✦ Synopsis

Objective: To establish the charges associated with triplet pregnancies managed at a single tertiary center, over a 5-year time period, and to evaluate the impact of prematurity on these charges. Methods: All triplet pregnancies that reached at least 20 weeks gestation and received prenatal and neonatal care at our center from 1992 to 1996 were included. Charges for these mothers and neonates were extracted from two separate hospital billing computer systems, encompassing all inpatient, outpatient, technical, and professional charges. Linear regression was used to evaluate the relationship between gestational age at delivery and total charges. Results: Fifty-five triplet pregnancies were included, resulting in the admission of 149 liveborn neonates. The median gestational age at delivery was 32.1 weeks. The mean charges per triplet mother were: $6,899 (professional), $3,959 (hospital outpatient), and $32,686 (hospital inpatient). The mean charges per neonatal sibling set were: $20,107 (professional) and $124,163 (hospital inpatient). The mean charges per complete triplet pregnancy was $187,814 (maternal plus neonatal). There was a significant inverse relationship between gestational age at delivery and total charges per triplet family, with a decrease of $16,584 for each additional gestational week reached (P ϭ 0.006). Conclusions: Triplet pregnancy charges averaged almost $190,000 each, which does not include charges associated with assisted reproductive technologies. These charges are almost all related to the expense of prolonged neonatal intensive care, and are significantly related to the gestational age at delivery. Efforts at containing these costs should focus on reducing the incidence of multiple gestation and preventing prematurity.