Hello All,
Here is what I came up with.  Thanks to Diane W for the last paragraph!
Y'all will have to call your own facility's billing office to get accurate
local numbers for cost of hospital stay.
And Happy Holidays to ALL from
Martha Johnson RN IBCLC
SHMC Lactation Services


To: Benefits Manager,  XYZ Insurance Co.
From : Dr ABC and me, the LC
RE: Reimbursement for LC services

Dear Benefits Manager,
It is our understanding that your health insurance policies do not include
lactation support services as a covered benefit.  As ahealth care providers
for some of your youngest and most vulnerable clients, we are concerned that
your policy could have a negative impact on breastfeeding duration, and thus
on public health in our community.   Moreover, there is good evidence to
show that paying for professional lactation support will be more cost
effective than the alternatives.

In your position as a health insurance manager, you must be aware of the
large body of medical literature documenting increased morbidity and
mortality in non-breastfed children.  Infants who do not receive their
mother's milk are at increased risk for respiratory and GI infections,
meningitis, SIDS, inflammatory bowel syndrome, juvenile onset diabetes,
necrotizing enterocolitis and childhood cancer, as well as other problems.
Formula fed infants in the US are fifteen times more likely to be
hospitalized in their first four months of life.

In terms of costs, probably the most expensive for insurance companies is
length of stay in the NICU.  The average daily charge for a baby in the NICU
at SHMC is $3963.  Discharge from the NICU is dependent on a number of
factors; a baby's ability to feed is one of the most important.  When our
team knows that a mother has an IBCLC readily available to her, and that a
plan is in place for immediate follow-up, her baby may be discharged days
sooner than a baby whose mother does not have access to lactation services.
Another increased cost for your company will be hospital readmissions for
babies who are dehydrated or in failure to due to poor milk transfer.  The
average daily charge for these diagnoses on the pediatrics floor at SHMC is
$1542.  Although the average baby will not require a costly hospital stay,
when breastfeeding fails, there are increased costs because of increased
morbidity in formula-fed infants.  A recent study by Kaiser-Permanente
estimates the cost of the increased number of pediatric visits at $1400 per
year  for each formula-fed child.  All these costs are much greater than the
average $_____ for a visit with an IBCLC.

Insurance coverage of lactation consultant services is called for in the
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 1997 statement on breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is recognized by the AAP, Healthy People 2010, the World
Health Organization, and UNICEF, as a basic form of preventive health care.
Supporting breastfeeding is perhaps the single most cost-effective measure
any insurance company can undertake.

Kind Regards,


Your doc and LC in the trenches

References:
  American Academy of Pediatrics Workgroup on Breastfeeding.  Breastfeeding
and the use of human milk.  Pediatrics 1997; 100: 1035-1039.

Auerbach, K (1999).  Best Deal in Town: Breastpump Rental vs. 'That Other
Stuff'.  Rental Roundup 16(1):8-9.

  Baker, B (1997).  Increased Illness Adds to High Cost of Formula.  Ob-Gyn
News 2/1/97: 30.

  Ball, T and Wright, A (1999).  Health Care Costs of Formula- feeding in
the First Year of Life.  Pediatrics 103(4): 870-876.

  Eibl, M.M. et al.  Prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis in
low-birth-weight infants IgA-IgG feeding.  New England Journal of Medicine
1988: 319:1.

  Lucas, A, Cole, TJ.  Breastmilk and necrotizing enterocolitis. Lancet
1990: 336. 1519-1523.

    "Preliminary results of a study to examine the effects of breastfeeding
on neonatal intensive care costs", a presentation to the Annual American
Dietetics Association meeting, October 1991.

  Riordan, JM (1997).  The Cost of Not Breastfeeding: A Commentary.  Journal
of Human Lactation 13(2): 93-97.

  Walker, M.  A Fresh Look at the Risks of Artificial Infant Feeding.
Journal of Human Lactation 1993: 9(2): 97-107.

  Walker, M.  Breastfeeding the premature infant. NAACOG Clinical issues in
Perinatal and Womens' Health Nursing: Breastfeeding. 1992: Vol 3, #4, p622.

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