Most postpartum spending occurs beyond 60 days after delivery HCCI brief (Health Care Cost Institute) Bloschichak, Aaron, author. Martin, Katie, author. Health Expenditures -- statistics & numerical data Postnatal Care -- economics Postpartum Period The postpartum period is a vulnerable time for both birthing parent and newborn and is critically important to their health and well-being. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends ongoing, comprehensive care, including physical, social, and psychological services, during the postpartum period. In large part because of an increasing maternal mortality rate in the US--one that is 3 to 4 times higher for African-American and Native American pregnant people--public and private decision makers have increased their focus on care in the postpartum period. We use HCCI's unique dataset to characterize spending on care used by birthing parents with employer-sponsored insurance during the postpartum period. Because the postpartum period is defined differently depending on the entity and purpose, our analysis of postpartum utilization and spending covers a full year after birth. We also include estimates for shorter periods, specifically 60 and 90 days, since those may be of particular interest to public and private decision makers. For example, while newborns born with Medicaid coverage are eligible for up to a full year, Medicaid programs are only required to cover most pregnant people with incomes below 133 percent of the federal poverty level through 60 days postpartum (though 36 states and the District of Columbia extend eligibility beyond that). Some members of Congress have proposed extending Medicaid eligibility for pregnant people to one year postpartum to align with the coverage that children receive. To assess the potential need for health care services among birthing parents in the year after delivering a baby we analyzed the spending of health care services among the commercially insured population across a full year, focusing on birthing parents, not newborns. [Washington, D.C.] : Health Care Cost Institute, May 2020 Health Care Cost Institute, issuing body. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (6 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-101769580-pdf 101769580 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101769580 English United States Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0