The Plan for Appropriate Tailored Healthcare in pregnancy (PATH) recommends tailoring prenatal visit schedules and modality (e.g., telemedicine visits) to patients’ risk-factors and preferences. We simulated PATH recommendations to explore financial implications from the patient perspective.
In this IRB exempt study, a dataset of 4,992 patients from a single academic health system was used to establish key assumptions for financial modeling. The model was constructed using several key parameters: patient risk, travel, and employment variables. We report patient-perspective cost and time savings across three models: traditional care (all patients seen for 12-14 in-person visits), tailored prenatal care (visit number tailored to patient risk), and hybrid tailored care (tailored care with telemedicine and in-person visits).
Implementation of tailored care resulted in substantial cost and time savings. In the traditional model, average travel time was 26 hours and average total cost per patient was $1,374 (time-off cost: $1,310; travel cost: $64). In the tailored model, patients saved on average 5 hours of travel time and $172 (total cost: $1201; time-off cost: $1,145; travel cost: $56). In the hybrid tailored model, patients saved on average 18 hours of travel and $792 (total cost: $581; time-off cost: $525; travel cost: $21; at-home supplies: $35). Extrapolated across all patients who sought prenatal care in 2020, estimated national cost savings range from approximately $0.5B and $2B annually for the in-person tailored and hybrid tailored model, respectively.
Tailored prenatal care delivery policies, particularly those that include telemedicine, result in significant time and cost savings for patients.