Prenatal, delivery, and infant care under Medicaid in three States

Medicaid services and expenditures were analyzed for care during the prenatal, delivery, and post-delivery periods in three States--California, Georgia, and Michigan. Uniform data were used from the Health Care Financing Administration's Medicaid Tape-to-Tape project, 1983-84. Results indicate that from 16 to 24 percent of all births in the States of the study, during the study period, were financed by Medicaid. Overall, the study showed that more than one-half of expenditures for the study population were for the delivery hospitalization, and less than 12 percent were for prenatal care. As expected, a substantial portion of expenditures were for high-cost deliveries, up to 41 percent of total delivery payments. From 33 to 41 percent of total Medicaid expenditures for Aid to Families with Dependent Children were for pregnancy, delivery, and newborn care in 1983.