AHRQ Stats: Medicaid and Private Insurance

Mood disorders were the most common principal diagnosis for hospital medical and surgical stays for Medicaid patients (6 percent of stays) and for uninsured patients (5 percent of stays) in 2012. This analysis excludes hospital stays for maternal and neonatal conditions. (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #182: Characteristics of Medicaid and Uninsured Hospitalizations, 2012.)

Characteristics of Medicaid and Uninsured Hospitalizations, 2012

Lorena Lopez-Gonzalez, Ph.D., Gary T. Pickens, Ph.D., Raynard Washington, Ph.D., and Audrey J. Weiss, Ph.D.

Highlights

Of the 36.5 million total hospital inpatient stays in 2012, 20.9 percent had an expected primary payer of Medicaid and 5.6 percent were uninsured; 30.6 percent were covered by private insurance.

Medicaid hospitalizations had a longer average length of stay but lower mean hospital cost per stay than did privately insured hospitalizations.

Patients covered by Medicaid were on average younger and more likely to live in low-income areas than were patients with private insurance. Patients who were uninsured were more likely to be male and to live in low-income communities than were patients with private insurance.

For all three expected primary payers, more than half of all hospital stays occurred in large, urban teaching, and private not-for-profit hospitals.

For nonmaternal and nonneonatal hospital stays among Medicaid and uninsured patients, mood disorders and other behavioral disorders were the most common diagnoses.