A hospital stay for mental illness cost considerably less than a stay for all other reasons in 2008, according to a report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The average cost of a mental health–related admission was $5,700, compared with $9,300 per stay for all other conditions. The length of a mental health admission, however, was longer – 8.0 days vs. 4.5 days for all other conditions, the AHRQ said. Mental health stays made up almost 3.4% of all hospital admissions.
There was considerable variation in cost by state, with the average hospital stay for mental illness ranging from a low of $2,900 to a high of $13,300 across the 39 states included in the analysis of data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, the report noted.