Rising trends in hospitalization costs in the United States: Analysis from the National Inpatient Sample

We assessed the contemporary temporal trends in hospitalization costs and the total number of hospitalizations in the US. A retrospective study was performed using annualized data of total hospitalizations and sociodemographics of patients using the National Inpatient Sample database. From 2012 to 2019, a total of 2.9 million hospitalizations and $3.5 trillion in hospitalization costs were recorded. The overall mean inflation-adjusted cost per hospitalization increased significantly from $11,585 in 2012 to $13,486 in 2019. Findings were consistent across males, females, and all pre-specified age groups, with a relative decline in crude hospitalization rates per 100,000 US population in females and all age groups during the study period. Further studies are warranted to study cause-specific hospitalizations that would explain these findings.