Skip to main content

Mean Adjusted Cost of Inpatient Stay for COVID-19 Was $11,275 Overall

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on Jan 3, 2024.

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 3, 2024 -- The adjusted mean cost of an inpatient stay for treating COVID-19 was $11,275 overall, with higher mean costs for those with specific comorbidities, according to a study published online Jan. 3 in JAMA Network Open.

Kandice A. Kapinos, Ph.D., from RAND Corporation in Arlington, Virginia, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study to examine the mean cost to provide inpatient care to treat COVID-19 and cost variation through the pandemic waves using inpatient-level data from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022. The sample included 1,333,404 stays at 841 hospitals for patients with a primary or secondary COVID-19 diagnosis.

The researchers found that the mean adjusted cost of an inpatient stay was $11,275 overall and increased from $10,394 to $13,072 at the end of March 2020 and the end of March 2022, respectively. Higher mean costs were seen for patients with specific comorbidities than their counterparts, with an additional $2,924 and $3,017 in inpatient stay costs for those with obesity and those with coagulation deficiency, respectively. The adjusted mean cost was $36,484 for stays during which the patient required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

"Hospital costs increased more than five times the rate of medical inflation over this period. This was explained partly by changes in the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, which also increased over time," the authors write. "Nonetheless, costs to provide inpatient care increased even as care practices changed, vaccination rates increased, and the variants of concern evolved."

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Read this next

Higher COVID-19 Vaccination Rates Tied to Decrease in Childhood Asthma Symptoms

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2024 -- Higher COVID-19 vaccination rates are associated with a lower prevalence of parent-reported childhood asthma symptoms, according to a research letter...

AI-Assisted Contours Superior to Cognitively Defined Prostate Cancer Contours

WEDNESDAY, July 3, 2024 -- Artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted definition of prostate cancer contours reduces underestimation of the extent of prostate cancer, according to a...

Mean Cost of Bringing New Drug to U.S. Market Is $879.3 Million

TUESDAY, July 2, 2024 -- The mean cost of developing a new drug for the U.S. market is estimated to be $879.3 million when both drug development failure and capital costs are...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.