Medicaid Pays For 80% Of Births Of Infants With Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome With Annual Costs Over $400 Million

During 2014, about 80% of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) were covered by Medicaid with annual costs of $462 million. The $462 million represents about 0.1% of the total $495 billion in 2014 Medicaid spending.

These findings were reported in “Incidence and Costs of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Among Infants With Medicaid: 2004–2014” by Tyler N.A. Winkelman, Nicole Villapiano, Katy B. Kozhimannil, Matthew M. Davis, and Stephen W. Patrick. The researchers analyzed hospital birth data for 2004 to 2014 from the National Inpatient Sample. The sample included 9.1 million birth discharge records, representative of the . . .