Diabetes Patients Medical Treatments Cost Hospitals $83 Billion

There were approximately 7.2 million hospitals stays for patients that had diabetes but were being treated for other conditions, while 540,000 hospitals stays were in direct treatment for diabetes.

The $83 billion spent on diabetes patients by hospitals is about 23 percent of their overall expenditures for treatments.

Diabetes patients cost, on average, 25 percent more than those that didn't have the disease ($10,937 versus $8,746, respectively). Medicare paid around 60 percent of the hospital stays for people with diabetes while private insurance paid 23 percent and Medicaid paid 10 percent of the stays. There were 4 percent of diabetic patients that were uninsured.

This amount is 23 percent of what hospitals spent overall to treat all conditions in 2008. The expenditures included costs associated with more than 540,000 hospital stays specifically for diabetes and roughly 7.2 million stays for patients who had other conditions in addition to diabetes. For example, a person with diabetes may be admitted primarily for heart disease, kidney damage, infection, or foot or leg amputation.

Diabetic patients were hospitalized for different reasons. Forty-two percent were hospitalized for congestive heart failure; 38 percent for hardening of the arteries; 34 percent for heart attack; 31 percent for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and 29 percent for chest pain with no specific cause.

The Western U.S. had the lowest hospitalization rate for diabetes, 1,866 per 100,000 persons, while the South had the highest rate, 2,829 per 100,000 people.

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) The read the full report visit: http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb93.pdf