Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Cost of Comorbid Alcohol and Drug Problems

Cost of Comorbid Alcohol and Drug Problems The authors measured the comorbid effect of alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems on medical, surgical, and psychiatric inpatient charges and length of stay (LOS) in an urban hospital by use of retrospective study of hospital clinical computer data comparing AOD‐affected patients with non‐AOD‐affected patients in terms of cost, diagnostic, demographic, and utilization variables (N = 14,768). Patients were men and women with and without comorbid history of AOD problems, admitted for medical, surgical, and psychiatric reasons. For 10 of the 20 most frequent Diagnosis‐Related Groups (DRGs), total hospital charges and LOS were significantly lower in patients with comorbid AOD problems (P < 0.001). Overall, for the most frequent 20 DRGs, total charges and LOS remained significantly lower for the AOD group. Most physicians believed that AOD‐affected patients were often less ill than non‐AOD patients within the same DRG. Alcohol/drug‐affected patients had robustly lower costs and LOS. Fragmentation of psychosocial costs and addiction treatment from general health care and the fee‐for‐service DRG system appear to financially reward acute‐care hospitals to repeatedly treat secondary AOD sequelae without providing any apparent incentives for the treatment of the primary alcohol/drug condition itself. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The American Journal on Addictions Wiley

Cost of Comorbid Alcohol and Drug Problems

Download PDF
12 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/cost-of-comorbid-alcohol-and-drug-problems-icdpYepb79

References (22)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
1997 American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry
ISSN
1055-0496
eISSN
1521-0391
DOI
10.1111/j.1521-0391.1997.tb00398.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

The authors measured the comorbid effect of alcohol and other drug (AOD) problems on medical, surgical, and psychiatric inpatient charges and length of stay (LOS) in an urban hospital by use of retrospective study of hospital clinical computer data comparing AOD‐affected patients with non‐AOD‐affected patients in terms of cost, diagnostic, demographic, and utilization variables (N = 14,768). Patients were men and women with and without comorbid history of AOD problems, admitted for medical, surgical, and psychiatric reasons. For 10 of the 20 most frequent Diagnosis‐Related Groups (DRGs), total hospital charges and LOS were significantly lower in patients with comorbid AOD problems (P < 0.001). Overall, for the most frequent 20 DRGs, total charges and LOS remained significantly lower for the AOD group. Most physicians believed that AOD‐affected patients were often less ill than non‐AOD patients within the same DRG. Alcohol/drug‐affected patients had robustly lower costs and LOS. Fragmentation of psychosocial costs and addiction treatment from general health care and the fee‐for‐service DRG system appear to financially reward acute‐care hospitals to repeatedly treat secondary AOD sequelae without providing any apparent incentives for the treatment of the primary alcohol/drug condition itself.

Journal

The American Journal on Addictions – Wiley

Published: Jul 1, 1997

There are no references for this article.