Medical expenditures for hypertensive disorders during pregnancy that resulted in a live birth among privately insured women

•Past studies only examined inpatient data or one type of pregnancy hypertension.•We used longitudinal data to estimate costs for different types of hypertension.•Women with pregnancy hypertension had higher use of services and costs.•Costs varied by type of hypertension.•Preeclampsia/eclampsia had the highest cost. To estimate the excess maternal health services utilization and direct maternal medical expenditures associated with hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and one year postpartum among women with private insurance in the United States. We used 2008–2014 IBM MarketScan® Commercial Databases to identify women aged 15–44 who had a pregnancy resulting in live birth during 1/1/09–12/31/13 and were continuously enrolled with non-capitated or partially capitated coverage from 12 months before pregnancy through 12 months after delivery. Hypertensive disorders identified by diagnosis codes were categorized into three mutually exclusive types: preeclampsia and eclampsia, chronic hypertension, and gestational hypertension. Multivariate negative binomial and generalized linear models were used to estimate service utilization and expenditures, respectively. Per person excess health services utilization and medical expenditures during pregnancy and one year postpartum associated with hypertensive disorders (in 2014 US dollars). Women with preeclampsia and eclampsia, chronic hypertension, and gestational hypertension had $9,389, $6,041, and $2,237 higher mean medical expenditures compared to women without hypertensive disorders ($20,252), respectively (ps