Hospital
Charges for the Uninsured up substantially
Newswise — The amount that hospitals charge
the uninsured for inpatient care grew by 88
percent between 1998 and 2007, according to
the latest News and Numbers from the Agency
for Healthcare Research and Quality. The
average charge for an uninsured hospital
stay grew from $11,400 in 1998 to $21,400 in
2007 after adjusting for inflation.
The federal agency’s analysis found that:
• From 1998 to 2007, the number of uninsured
hospital stays increased by 31 percent,
which far exceeds the 13 percent overall
increase in hospital stays during the
period.
• The percentage of uninsured hospital stays
increased the most in the South, rising from
5.8 percent to 7.5 percent. In contrast, in
the Midwest, the percentage of uninsured
hospital stays declined from 4.7 percent to
4.0 percent.
• The top reason that uninsured patients
were hospitalized was for childbirth. In
2007, roughly a quarter of a million
uninsured women gave birth in hospitals.
This was followed by depression and bipolar
disorder (94,300); chest pain with no
observed cause (77,000); skin infections –
which more than doubled from 31,000 to
73,300, and alcohol-related disorders
(66,600).
This AHRQ News and Numbers is based on data
in Trends in Uninsured Hospital Stays,
1998-2007 (http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb88.pdf).
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.
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