AHRQ Stats: Hospital Care for Mental and Substance-Use Disorders

Nearly one in three hospital stays in 2012 involved at least one mental or substance-use disorder diagnosis, accounting for 8.6 million hospital stays that year. This analysis excludes hospital stays for maternal and neonatal conditions. (Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #191:Hospitalizations Involving Mental and Substance Use Disorders Among Adults, 2012.)

Hospitalizations Involving Mental and Substance Use Disorders Among Adults, 2012

Kevin C. Heslin, Ph.D., Anne Elixhauser, Ph.D., and Claudia A. Steiner, M.D., M.P.H.

Highlights

In 2012, 8.6 million inpatient stays involved at least one mental disorder (MD) or substance use disorder (SUD) diagnosis, accounting for 32.3 percent of inpatient stays.

Nearly 1.8 million inpatient stays were primarily for M/SUDs (6.7 percent of all stays).

Mood disorders was the most common primary MD diagnosis (741,950 stays), and alcohol-related disorders was the most common SUD diagnosis (335,790 stays).

Compared with non-M/SUD stays, on average M/SUD stays were longer (6.6 days vs. 4.8 days for non-M/SUD stays) but had lower total costs ($6,300 vs. $12,600). Longer stays for M/SUD diagnoses were attributable primarily to stays for MD diagnoses (8.3 days).

Among stays with a primary MD or SUD diagnosis, 13.9 percent lacked insurance—more than two times greater than among stays without M/SUD diagnoses (6.0 percent).

Medicare was the most common payer for stays involving MD diagnoses only (37.4 percent). Medicaid was the most common payer for SUD diagnoses only (29.0 percent). Taken together, government payers covered 56.0 percent of all inpatient stays with a primary MD or SUD, including those with co-occurring M/SUDs.