Standardizing Assignment of At-Risk Newborns
Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) are typically reserved for infants with serious issues that require highly specialized care. However, analyses of Medicaid claims using PROMETHEUS Analytics found that NICU designation varies widely among facilities. These variations in rates of use, costs, and lengths of stay can seriously impede a facility’s ability to achieve savings under value-based bundled payments. By better understanding this variation and its sources, facilities can take steps to standardize assignment of newborns to NICU and, by extension, reduce costs of postpartum care.