AHRQ Stats: Cost Trends for Hospital Stays

From 2005 to 2014, the average inflation-adjusted cost of a hospital stay increased approximately 13 percent, from $9,500 to $10,900. Average costs for stays covered by Medicaid and private insurance increased 16 to 18 percent. Costs rose 8 percent for Medicare stays and 7 percent for uninsured stays. (AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #225: Trends in Hospital Inpatient Stays in the United States, 2005-2014.)


Today’s Headlines:


New Interactive Map Highlights State-Specific Trends in Opioid-Related Hospital Stays

A new interactive map from AHRQ allows users to explore state-specific information about opioid-related hospital stays. Users may find, for example:

  • Opioid-related hospitalizations have increased most dramatically in Georgia, where rates nearly doubled between 2009 and 2014
  • West Virginia reported the highest hospitalization rate for women in 2014 – 371 per 100,000 people
  • Louisiana was the only state in which the highest-income communities had the highest opioid-related hospitalization rate in 2014

The map, which includes information on 44 states and the District of Columbia, highlights data from AHRQ’s Fast Stats, an online tool that offers national and state-specific data on hospital stays and emergency department visits, including data by age, gender, community-level income and urban versus rural residency. The map is the most recent example of AHRQ’s ongoing efforts to address the nation’s opioid epidemic.