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Abstract
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US hospital discharge data from 2016 and 2017, the most recent available, suggest that the initial hospital costs due to firearm injuries were just over $1 billion annually, according to a recent report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Inpatient stays accounted for more than 90% of those costs, with an average of nearly $31 000 per patient--2.5 times the average $12 000 cost per patient admitted for a different reason. For patients with firearm injuries who came to the emergency department but weren't admitted, the average cost was about $1500, the GAO estimated.
The cost of physicians providing care in the hospital, which is not captured in the discharge data, could add about 20% to the total hospital cost of treating patients with firearm injuries, the GAO estimated.
Patients with Medicaid and other public health coverage accounted for more than half of those annual costs, and firearm injuries disproportionately occurred within certain demographic groups and geographic regions, the GAO found. Among patients hospitalized with firearm injuries, those covered by Medicaid generally had higher average costs.
Less is known about the costs of firearm injuries after the initial hospitalization or emergency department visit, according to the GAO report. Other studies have found that as many as 16% of firearm injury survivors with an initial inpatient stay are readmitted at least once during the following year, at an average cost of $8000 to $11 000 per patient, the GAO noted.
Even less is known about health care costs for firearm injuries beyond the first year after hospital discharge...
Language: en |