Hospital tally approaches $1 trillion

Posted by
on December 14, 2007M at 4:44 pm

U.S. hospitals charged $873 billion in 2005 — a nearly 90 percent increase from the $462 billion charged in 1997 — according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The inflation-adjusted 2005 bill represents the amount charged for 39 million hospital stays.

With an average annual growth rate in hospital charges of 4.5 percent, researchers predict the bill will reach $1 trillion by 2008.

AHRQ also found:

-Medicare paid $411 billion of the national bill, followed by private insurance ($272 billion) and Medicaid ($124 billion).

-The uninsured accounted for $38 billion.

This is taken from the AHRQ report:

Table 1. Top 20 most expensive conditions treated in U.S. hospitals, 2005

Rank

Principal diagnosis

Total national hospital bill (millions)

Percentage of national hospital bill

Number of hospital stays (thousands)

1

Coronary artery disease

$45,985

5.3%

1,110

2

Mother’s pregnancy and delivery

$43,925

5.0%

4,712

3

Newborn infants

$35,316

4.0%

4,429

4

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI, heart attack)

$31,946

3.7%

662

5

Congestive heart failure (CHF)

$30,230

3.5%

1,090

6

Pneumonia

$29,535

3.4%

1,355

7

Osteoarthritis

$26,157

3.0%

738

8

Complication of device, implant or graft

$25,291

2.9%

616

9

Sepsis

$24,801

2.8%

538

10

Back pain (spondylosis, intervertebral disc disorders, other back problems)

$20,327

2.3%

647

11

Respiratory failure, insufficiency, arrest (adult)

$19,723

2.3%

336

12

Cardiac dysrhythmias

$17,224

2.0%

697

13

Acute cerebrovascular disease (stroke)

$17,060

2.0%

526

14

Rehabilitation care, fitting of prostheses, and adjustment of devices

$13,848

1.6%

517

15

Complications of surgical procedures or medical care

$13,316

1.5%

463

16

Gall bladder disease

$11,719

1.3%

456

17

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

$11,506

1.3%

630

18

Diabetes mellitus with complications

$11,171

1.3%

491

19

Hip fracture

$10,869

1.2%

317

20

Nonspecific chest pain

$10,027

1.1%

825

Total for top 20 conditions

$449,976

51.5%

21,155

Total for all hospitalizations

$873,236

100.0%

39,164

Source: AHRQ, Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 2005.

For more health and medical news and commentary, read The Medicine Bag blog at http://blog.newsok.com/health.

Jeff Raymond, Medical Writer

Categorized under:
health/medicine

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Comments
Trackback by A. HALIM on May 18, 2009 @ 3:10 pm

A. HALIM…

Although your article about congestive heart failure and pneumonia sounds interesting but i’m not sure if i could agree with you in 100%….

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