Private Insurance Reimbursements for Newborn Hearing Screening in the United States, 2013-2014 Birth Cohort

The purpose of this study was to describe private insurance reimbursements for newborn hearing screening (NBHS) in the United States. Data from the MarketScan® Commercial Databases were used to estimate itemized reimbursements for privately insured infants born between January 1, 2013-December 31, 2014. Estimates were based on billed claims for hearing screening services during infancy among 456,407 infants with birth hospitalization claims (71,820 infants with inpatient NBHS and 1,104 infants with outpatient NBHS). The median reimbursement for NBHS was almost three times greater when performed in an inpatient setting than outpatient setting. Median reimbursement for NBHS performed in a hospital and billed as inpatient service was $148.00 (interquartile range [IQR] $99.52-$210.00) and $57.53 (IQR $34.40-$120.91) when billed as an outpatient service. The mean reimbursement for NBHS performed in an outpatient hospital setting was $136.48 (IQR $86.08-$220.15) and $41.60 (IQR $28.15-$57.52) for NBHS billed in conjunction with an office visit (e.g., performed in an audiology clinic, an audiologist's office, or physician's office during a routine check-up). No NBHS claims were filed for 84.3% of infants (384,587‬/456,407), as NBHS is generally included as a covered service bundled along with delivery and newborn care.