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The average hospital charge for Americans treated for disc disorders and other back problems nearly doubled between 1993 and 2003 — from $13,200 to $25,300 — according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The statistics are adjusted for inflation and do not include physicians’ fees.

Back injury charges double in decade

November 1, 2005

Back injury charges double in decade

The average hospital charge for Americans treated for disc disorders and other back problems nearly doubled between 1993 and 2003 — from $13,200 to $25,300 — according to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The statistics are adjusted for inflation and do not include physicians’ fees.

While hospital charges were increasing, the time back patients had to stay in the hospital was falling, from an average of nearly five days in 1993 to about three days in 2003. During the same period, the number of hospital admissions for back problems increased from 528,000 to 658,000.

This information was produced using HCUPnet, an on-line query system that provides access to health statistics and information on hospital stays from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). This project comprises a family of health care databases and related software tools developed through a federal-state-industry partnership and sponsored by AHRQ. HCUP includes the largest set of publicly available databases on all patients in the United States, regardless of type of insurance or whether the patients had insurance. To access HCUPnet, go to hcup.ahrq.gov/HCUPnet.asp.