Cost of Hospital Treatment for Blood Infection Surges, Especially for Uninsured Patients

AHRQ News and Numbers
Cost of Hospital Treatment for Blood Infection Surges, Especially for Uninsured Patients

Hospital costs for treating patients with the blood infection septicemia surged 174 percent between 2001 and 2007, making it the condition with highest-rising treatment costs during that period.

Although just 3 percent of $12.3 billion in 2007 was spent treating blood infections in uninsured patients, they accounted for the highest average increase of 228 percent. By comparison, the average cost to hospitals of treating blood infections in Medicaid patients jumped by 192 percent, in Medicare patients by 172 percent, and in privately insured patients by 152.5 percent.

Other conditions with rapidly increasing cost, grouped by payer, included:
Medicare—Intestinal infection 205 percent; acute kidney failure 154 percent.
Uninsured—Acute kidney failure 179 percent; respiratory failure 154 percent.
Medicaid—Acute kidney failure 160 percent; leukemia and other white blood cell disease 127 percent.

Privately insured—Osteoarthritis 120 percent; acute kidney failure 119 percent.
This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on data in Diagnostic Groups with Rapidly Increasing Costs, by Payer, 2001-2007. The report uses statistics from the 2007 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital inpatient stays that is nationally representative of inpatient stays in all short-term, non-Federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise 90 percent of all discharges in the United States and include all patients, regardless of insurance type, as well as the uninsured.

open here to see the AHRQ document:
Statistical Brief #91