Hospital Delivery Charges Significantly Higher When Babies Conceived Through Assisted Reproductive Technologies

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...