Neonatal hospital lengths of stay, readmissions, and charges

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate trends in length of hospital stay, hospital charges, and readmission rates of Wisconsin newborns from 1989 through 1994 in light of recent policies requiring earlier discharges after delivery of newborns.

Methodology: Two data sources were used: 1) 1989-1994 Hospital Inpatient Discharge Data from the Wisconsin Office of Health Care Information, and 2) 1994 birth certificate and matched infant mortality data from the Wisconsin Center for Health Statistics. Average lengths of stay and average hospital (delivery and readmission) charges were calculated, and readmission rates were estimated for full-term, premature, and sick newborns.

Results: There were 368 955 full-term and 26 668 premature newborns in Wisconsin from 1989 through 1994. The average length of stay decreased by 24% in full-term newborns from 1989 through 1994, while average hospital (delivery and readmission) charges rose over 40% during the same period. Average length of stay for premature infants increased by 24% while their hospital delivery charges increased 214% during the study period. Readmission rates halved, yet charges per readmission doubled for full-term infants. More than twice as many full-term newborns were classified as sick in 1994 (43%) compared with 1989 (19%).

Conclusions: Managed care efforts to control costs of neonatal care through earlier newborn discharge policies may have limited impact. Physicians or hospitals may be compensating for these policies by classifying more newborns as sick, thereby allowing for longer hospital stays to be reimbursed by the insurance carriers. Premature infants, <7% of the total births, account for half of all hospital delivery charges. Efforts to reduce premature births may have a greater impact on neonatal health care costs than efforts to discharge full-term newborns earlier.