Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) analysts recently announced that they found an alarming rise in severe maternal morbidity among patients hospitalized in PA for delivery from 2016 through 2022. Severe maternal morbidity includes unexpected outcomes of labor and delivery that result in significant consequences to a woman’s health. The rate of severe maternal morbidity in PA increased 40% from 2016 to 2022. In 2021-2022 the rate of severe maternal morbidity experienced in hospitals was 107.6 per 10,000 delivery hospitalizations; for a total of 2,625 women affected. The following categories of women had higher rates of severe maternal morbidity:
- Women who were black, non-Hispanic
- Women 40-55 years of age
- Women insured by Medicaid
- Women from zip codes with poverty rates over 25%