Rising admission rates for even full-term and normal-weight babies into neonatal intensive care arouse concerns that NICUs are being overused. Is this just waste or is there fraud being perpetrated by hospitals and physicians that see this care as a good revenue source?

“If hospitals want to argue that NICUs are necessary, they will need to prove that the need exists, especially in light of the increasing share of infants admitted who are at or near full term,”  wrote Aaron E. Carroll, M.D., from the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Comparative Effectiveness Research and the Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research at Indiana University.