I thought that this was a really beautiful and moving story from Kansas City.
It's not clear to me how the milk donation actually worked, since the story says that the recipient mother couldn't afford donor milk. I do know that insurance generally only covers donor milk on a case by case basis, but also that milk banks don't turn anyone away for inability to pay.
In any case, it's another situation which makes me scratch my head about why insurance doesn't yet cover donor milk in these situations.
A while back I wrote about how much money it could save them, just in preventing one life threatening complication of prematurity, necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, which affects as many as one in ten premature babies and according to this news piece has a mortality rate of about one third:
You may have heard that pasteurized donor milk can cost $3.00 to $4.50 an ounce. That might sound like a lot. But consider that a tiny preemie who is primarily receiving her mother's own milk may need a supplement of only a few ounces a day. Then compare that to the estimated $350,000 cost of surgically treating NEC. That number doesn't even start to take into account the lifelong medical costs from that episode of NEC.
One other note: Milk banks always accept milk donations from bereaved mothers whether or not they meet the qualifications for milk donation.
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