Anecdotal evidence has been mounting for years, but a new study published Jan. 3 is documenting a meaningful increase in hospital costs nationwide, because of the opioid overdoses of individuals that are causing them to be admitted to hospitals.
The Charlotte-based Premier Inc. on Thursday published a report whose analysis has found that total care for patients who experienced an opioid overdose resulted in $1.94 billion in annual hospital costs across 647 healthcare facilities nationwide.
The Premier study found that these costs were concentrated among nearly 100,000 opioid overdose patients with nearly 430,000 total visits across emergency department (ED), inpatient and other care settings. Sixty-six percent of the patients were insured by public programs (33 percent Medicare and 33 percent Medicaid), 16 percent used a commercial payer, 14 percent were uninsured, and 3 percent were covered under other programs, such as workers’ compensation.
Annual hospital care for overdose patients represents a significant portion of healthcare expenditures and can be detrimental to providers in regions with high addiction rates. For instance, by extrapolating the cost trends Premier identified in its analysis, the total added costs to the U.S. healthcare system are estimated to amount to $11.3 billion annually, or 1 percent of all hospital expenditures. If the payer mix remained constant, $7.4 billion of the expense would be borne by the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Opioid overdose patients that present to the ED are at a high risk for multiple organ failure, hospitalization, increased costs due to ICU stays and unplanned readmissions following discharge. According to the Premier analysis, caring for all overdose patients treated in the ED alone amounted to more than $632 million in costs to hospitals. Approximately 47 percent of patients were treated and released, and 53 percent were treated and admitted. Of those that were admitted, nearly 40 percent experienced organ failure. The average cost for an overdose patient who was treated and released totaled $504, but the average cost rose to $11,731 for those that were treated and admitted and to $20,500 for those that required ICU care. Adding these costs – ED, inpatient and ICU – totaled the $1.94 billion in annual hospital charges.
While the analysis used the data from 647 facilities to estimate a national aggregate rate (40.9 per 10,000 visits), there was wide state-to-state variation, ranging from a low of 6.1 per 10,000 visits to a high of 87.5 per 10,000 visits. Of those receiving treatment, 34 percent were treated for heroin poisoning and 8 percent were treated for synthetic opioid poisoning, such as methadone. Likewise, 58 percent of those treated were for undetermined opioid poisoning, including prescription opioids and overlapping or unspecified use, such as if the patient used heroin that was laced with synthetics, e.g., fentanyl.
In a statement contained in the Premier press release, Roshni Ghosh, M.D., M.P.H., Premier’s vice president and chief medical information officer, said, “Opioid addiction has been a public health problem for some time, but we’ve yet to show exactly how hospitals – the entities that treat most of these patients—are financially impacted. This analysis shows that on top of losing family members and friends to this epidemic, it’s costing consumers and taxpayers, as well as hospitals. There is an urgent need to provide health systems and emergency caregivers with frontline solutions that they can use to stem the tide of opioid addiction in our communities.”
Leveraging the Premier Healthcare Database, Premier’s analysis of opioid overdose visits, patient progression, and usage and cost patterns was made available to members via individual hospital and system-level reports. These actionable reports are standardized to help health system leaders easily and quickly benchmark internal patterns, relative to opioid overdoses, to measure their performance based on industry trends and pinpoint opportunity areas. The Premier Healthcare Database leverages the PremierConnect® performance improvement platform, which houses data on 45 percent of U.S. patient discharges nationwide.
“The comparative analyses that Premier provides in these reports are key to supporting health system efforts to address this epidemic,” Ghosh added. “These are detailed, evidence-based insights that help providers create focused and customized pain management and addiction reduction initiatives specific to the patients that need them. Our goal is to support our members in every way possible in reducing overuse and misuse, and improving health outcomes, safety and costs at the same time.”
