Brain Care Costs Jump, Medicare Payments Trail Behind

Between 2013 and 2023, there were about 6.7 million hospital stays for brain and nerve conditions among Medicare patients. That sounds like a lot, but the number of stays actually fell by roughly one third. Fewer people were admitted for neurologic care over those ten years.

Even though admissions dropped, the bill hospitals sent for each stay grew a lot. After taking inflation into account, the average charge per stay jumped from roughly forty‑eight thousand dollars to about seventy‑seven thousand dollars – an increase of about sixty percent. Meanwhile, what Medicare actually paid per stay rose only twenty‑five percent, from about ten‑two thousand to twelve‑eight thousand dollars. Because payments lagged behind charges, the shortfall ratio climbed from 0.74 to 0.80.

Hospitals in big cities tended to have a slightly smaller shortfall than those in rural areas – the difference was about three tenths of a percent. This pattern held across all the different neurologic disease groups studied. The growing gap between what hospitals charge and what Medicare pays suggests that paying for inpatient brain care is becoming harder, even as fewer stays happen. Researchers say we need to look at how payment systems line up with the real cost of modern neurologic treatment.

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