Microcephaly inpatient hospitalization and potential Zika outbreak in Texas: A cost and predicted economic burden analysis

Estimate inpatient hospitalization costs for patients with microcephaly, and predict cost increases due to a potential Zika virus outbreak. We identified Texas-wide inpatient hospitalization discharge records (2008–2015), for newborns and non-newborns with microcephaly. We estimated the cost of each hospitalization by applying cost-to-charge ratios on the actual hospitalization charge. For comparison, newborn visits for patients without microcephaly were also identified, and hospital costs were compared between patients with and without microcephaly. We estimated costs for microcephaly during the first year of life following a Zika outbreak (possible 1–50% increase in birth prevalence) in Texas. There were 8005 microcephaly hospitalizations ($203,899,042; total cost). The median admission cost for newborns with microcephaly (N = 1393) was higher compared to those without microcephaly ($6751 vs $725, p