The cost of complex hospitalizations for COVID-19 ranged from about $49,000 in Maryland to $129,000 in New Jersey, according to a new report by FAIR Health. [MedPage Today 12.15.2021]

In an analysis of private insurance claims spanning March 2020 through July 2021, New Jersey ($128,650) had the highest average allowed amount for complex hospitalizations, while Alaska ($44,239) was the highest for non-complex hospitalizations, and Nevada ($1,538) the highest for outpatient treatment.

Maryland had the lowest average allowed amounts for complex ($49,127) and non-complex ($12,531) hospitalizations as well as outpatients ($580).

Regionally, the west ($117,316) bore the highest average allowed amount for complex cases, and the south ($84,324) had the lowest, according to the report. The west ($38,135) also had the highest average for non-complex hospitalizations, while the south ($20,013) again had the lowest.

Among outpatients, the west ($1,187) was again the highest, while the northeast was the lowest ($937).

The report also looked at other patient characteristics, concluding that among those with complex hospitalizations, 48.4% had five or more comorbidities and 20.6% had no comorbidities.

The most common comorbidity for patients with complex hospitalization was hyperlipidemia and/or hypertension (14.7%), it found.

The median length of complex hospitalization declined from a peak of 13 days in April 2020 to 7 days in July of this year.

While the percentage of COVID patents who died in April 2020 was 1.9%, that figure declined to about 0.5% each month from February to July this year, the report found.

Gender showed varying trends: In non-complex hospitalizations, 57% of patients were female, while 57% of patients with complex hospitalizations were male.

More details here> 

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