Study says average Covid-19 hospitalizations are $4,000 with out-of-pocket costs per visit – Orange County Register

By Deidre McPhillips | CNN

Measures to protect hospitalized patients with Covid-19 from financial liability have been withdrawn by most insurance companies in the United States, leaving the majority of patients out-of-pocket with an average of about $4,000 per person. hospital stay, according to search was published this week in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Between March 2020 and January 2021, less than 9% of patients with private healthcare insurance shared the costs associated with Covid-19 hospitalizations. By March 2021, more than 84% of patients with private insurance had some financial responsibility for Covid-19 hospitalization.

A separation analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that cost-sharing waivers have now expired for more than 94% of the largest health plans. Much of it went back to August 2021, when a Covid-19 vaccine became widely available to the public.

Patients covered under a Medicare Advantage plan saw a similar increase in cost-sharing liability, from less than 3% in the first year of the pandemic to 66% in March 2021.

From March 2020 to March 2021 – an extended period when cost-sharing waivers are common and rolled back – the average cost of private self-insured Covid-19 hospitalization The average multiplier is $3,998 out of pocket. Average costs are highest in the Western region of the United States and lowest in the Northeast.

For this study, researchers from the University of Michigan and Boston University analyzed the medical claims of nearly 16,000 people hospitalized with Covid-19 as their primary diagnosis.

The researchers suggest that “a broad waiver of cost-sharing waivers by insurers is considered premature.”