FAIR Health Launches Interactive Tool Tracking Cost of Giving Birth State by State

June 22, 2023

FAIR Health recently launched the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, a free, interactive tool tracking the cost of giving birth state by state. Available on FAIR Health’s website fairhealth.org, the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker consists of heat maps that show state-specific and national median1 charge and allowed (in-network) amounts2 for vaginal deliveries and C-sections. The tool draws on the national, independent nonprofit FAIR Health’s database of over 41 billion private healthcare claim records—the largest such repository in the country.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker includes inpatient and outpatient facility and professional costs. Services include the delivery itself (e.g., pharmacy, nursery, labor and delivery room, medical and surgical supplies, room and board for the mother), anesthesia, fetal nonstress tests, ultrasounds, laboratory work and a breast pump. The data come from the September 2022 release of the vaginal delivery and C-section FH® Total Treatment Cost benchmarks.

Among the findings of the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker:

  • The national median allowed amount for C-section is $15,555.61, and the national median charge amount is $35,907.33.
  • The national median allowed amount for vaginal delivery is $12,968.44, and the national median charge amount is $27,371.88.
  • Alaska is the state with the highest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $21,525.77, followed by (in order from highest to lowest) New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.
  • Alaska also had the highest median allowed amount for C-sections, $25,518.63, followed by New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and California.
  • Alabama had the lowest median allowed amount for vaginal deliveries, $7,840.62, followed by (in order from lowest to highest) Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.
  • Alabama also had the lowest median allowed amount for C-sections, $8,913.31, followed by Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri and Oklahoma.

The Cost of Giving Birth Tracker is the latest addition to FAIR Health’s series of trackers offering geographic windows into healthcare data. The series also includes the Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker, which tracks telehealth utilization by region across the nation, and, in July, will include the Opioid Tracker, which will track opioid abuse and dependence and opioid overdose.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd stated: “FAIR Health is pleased to shine a light onto the costs of giving birth from state to state and nationally. With the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, we once again use our vast data repository to inform healthcare stakeholders—including patients, policy makers, payors and providers—on issues that matter to them.”

For the Cost of Giving Birth Tracker, click here.



1 A median is the midpoint of the distribution of values below and above which there is an equal number of values.
2 A charge amount is the amount charged to a patient who is uninsured or obtaining an out-of-network service. An allowed amount is the total fee negotiated between an insurance plan and a provider for an in-network service, including both the portion to be paid by the plan member and the portion to be paid by the plan.