U.S. Hospital Bill for Alcohol Abuse: $2 Billion

TUESDAY, May 9 (HealthDay News) -- The hospital care of alcohol abuse-related problems in the United States involved nearly 210,000 patients in 2003 at a total cost of about $2 billion, concludes a report by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Other findings in the report:

• 34 percent of hospital stays that were primarily for alcohol abuse disorders involved privately insured patients; 25 percent involved Medicaid patients; 21 percent involved uninsured patients; and 13 percent involved Medicare patients.
• More than 1 million patients admitted to hospitals for other reasons also had a diagnosis of alcohol abuse. About 3 percent of all hospital stays had some mention of alcohol abuse.
• Among uninsured patients, 25.3 out of every 1,000 hospital stays were for alcohol abuse disorders, which represented the fourth most common reason for hospitalization of uninsured patients.
• Alcohol abuse was among the top 25 most common reasons for hospitalization among men of all ages and the fourth most common reason among men ages 35 to 44.
• 65 percent of all hospital admissions primarily for alcohol abuse disorders also involved a substance abuse disorder; 34 percent involved depression, bipolar disease or other mood disorders; 11.5 percent had alcohol-related liver disease; and 8.7 percent had anxiety disorders.