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AHRQ News and Numbers
Release date: November 16, 2005
Medicare's hospital bill for the inpatient care of its beneficiaries totaled roughly $327
billion in 2003, according to the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality.
The following 10 conditions accounted for 41 percent of the total amount charged
Medicare:
- Coronary
atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)—$24 billion.
- Congestive heart
failure—$18.3 billion.
- Heart
attack—$17.3 billion.
- Pneumonia—$15
billion.
- Complication of
device, implant or graft—$12 billion.
- Irregular heart
beat—$10.8 billion.
- Osteoarthritis—$10.7
billion.
- Stroke—$9.2
billion.
- Septicemia—$7.9
billion.
- Hip
fracture—$7.2 billion.
These
are the amounts that hospitals charged for the entire stays of Medicare
patients. The amounts do not include physician fees and charges do not
necessarily reflect what hospitals were reimbursed.
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