Abstract 18813: Economic Burden of Pregnancy Among Privately Insured Women With Congenital Heart Disease

Abstract

Background: Women with congenital heart defects (CHD) are increasingly reaching childbearing age. Understanding their healthcare costs in pregnancy may inform resource allocation, financial planning, and pre-conception counseling. Methods: We used 2010-2016 US commercially insured beneficiaries’ data within the IBM ® MarketScan® database to identify pregnancies among 18-55-year-old women with CHD and matched controls without CHD. We assessed baseline characteristics, cardiac and noncardiac conditions, pregnancy related conditions, birth outcomes, and cesarean section. We estimated total and out-of-pocket (OOP) costs, compiled and adjusted to 2016 medical component of the consumer price index. Negative binomial mixed model was used. Results: There were 6385 pregnancies in 5077 women with CHD (672 pregnancies among severe and 5713 among nonsevere) and 9438 pregnancies in 7737 controls. Compared to controls, pregnancies with CHD were more likely to be 35+ years of age at delivery, resided in the Northeast and West regions, had flexible insurance plans, cardiac conditions, noncardiac conditions, birth outcomes, pregnancy related conditions and cesarean sections, while there was no difference in the year of delivery and gestational diabetes rates. After adjusting for all covariates, having CHD was an independent predictor of higher adjusted pregnancy-related cost ratio for total (1.49, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.40, 1.59) and OOP costs (1.27, 95% CI 1.19, 1.35). The adjusted mean total and OOP cost difference for pregnancy per patient for any CHD, severe CHD, and nonsevere CHD was significantly higher than controls (Figure). Total expenditure and OOP cost of CHD pregnancies during the study period were $162.5 and $15.7 million dollars respectively. Conclusions: We provide novel estimates of economic burden of pregnancy among privately insured CHD patients for clinical and financial counseling and planning for patients, payors and policymakers.