Hospital Delivery Charges Significantly Higher When Babies Conceived Through Assisted Reproductive Technologies
By Miriam Zoll,
Reporting on Health
| 03. 04. 2014
A new study published in the Journal of Perinatology [1] online has found that from 2009-2011 in California, hospital delivery charges associated with babies born through assisted reproductive technologies (ART) or artificial insemination (AI) were significantly higher than charges for babies born through natural conception –– in some cases exceeding $1.2 million per infant.
The retrospective study was based on 2009-2011 data from the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and conducted by researchers from the Loma Linda University School of Medicine.
In 2011, statewide average hospital charges for maternity care for women who delivered ART/AI infants were almost fifty percent higher than fees for non-ART infants born late preterm or at term––$35,768 compared to $18,654. The higher charges are linked to a 24- to 27-fold increase across California of multiple births, and significantly higher rates of preterm births, lower birth weights, fetal anomalies and stillbirth, among infants born through ART/AI. In 2009, there were 5,710 ART/AI live births in California and 1,718 of these births -- or 30.1 percent –– were multiple births consisting of twins, triplets...
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026
More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.
Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026
Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/
Why it matters: Confusing, varied local rules can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at...
By Ryan Knutson and Jessica Mendoza, The Journal. | 03.27.2026
Genetically engineered babies are banned in the U.S. But that isn’t stopping Silicon Valley tech titans from trying to make one. In this final installment from The Journal’s investigation into the fringes of the fertility industry, WSJ’s Emily Glazer reports...
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 03.30.2026
After operating in secrecy for years, a startup company called R3 Bio, in Richmond, California, suddenly shared details about its work last week—saying it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing.
In...
