News: Acute renal failure doubles the cost of a hospital stay, according to study

The cost for a hospital stay in 2014 involving acute renal failure (ARF) averaged $19,200, according to the statistical brief published by The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). That makes those hospital stays nearly twice as expensive as the $9,900 average cost for stays not involving renal failure, JustCoding reported.

In 2014, hospital stays with a principal diagnosis of ARF accounted for 1.4% of all hospitalizations, and the rate of inpatient stays with a secondary diagnosis of ARF increased nearly threefold from 2005 to 2014, according to the HCUP.

The study also found that septicemia was the most frequent principal diagnosis and blood transfusion was the most common procedure among stays with an “all-listed” ARF diagnosis (a principal diagnosis of ARF plus these additional secondary conditions) in 2014, JustCoding reported.

The HCUP said it analyzed rates of stays with a diagnosis of ARF per 100,000 population by patient characteristics in both 2005 and 2014 for this study, with the distribution of stays and costs by payer in 2014 presented.

Of those with a principal diagnosis of ARF in 2014, Medicare accounted for 69.4% of the 504,600 stays and accounted for 68.6% of the $4.6 billion in aggregate costs associated with those stays, the brief said.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in JustCoding. To read the full report from the HCUP, click here. To read about the rising costs of catheter-associated urinary tract infections, click here. To learn about EHRs' role in healthcare costs, click here.