The National Hospital Bill: Growth Trends and 2005 Update on the Most Expensive Conditions by Payer

Excerpt

As health care costs rise and the population ages, policy makers are concerned with the growing burden of hospital-based medical care and expenses to governments, consumers, and insurers. This Statistical Brief presents data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) on the national inpatient hospital bill (aggregate community hospital charges) in 2005 and annual trends for 1997 through 2005.

This report provides information on the top 20 most expensive conditions and the growth in the national bill for each of these conditions between 1997 and 2005. This report also describes the distribution of the nation’s 2005 bill by primary payer and illustrates the conditions accounting for the largest percentage of each payer’s hospital bills. The primary payers examined are Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and the uninsured.