The 20 most expensive conditions hospitals treat: Report
Septicemia is the most expensive condition treated in hospitals, amounting to $60 billion, a Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project report found.
The report, published February 2026, used 2022 data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project on hospital costs of inpatient stays in nonfederal acute care hospitals. Using the 2022 HCUP National Inpatient Sample, the report found the distribution of costs by primary expected payer and the conditions that accounted for the largest percentage of payer’s hospital costs. Hospital charges were converted to costs using HCUP cost-to-charge ratios. Payers included Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and self-pay/no charge.
The report found:
- The aggregate hospital costs for 32.9 million hospital stays totaled $548.5 billion.
- The 20 most expensive conditions account for 46.8% of aggregate hospital costs in 2022, and amounted to 43.1% of all hospital stays.
- Septicemia accounted for 10.9% of aggregate costs for all hospital stays in 2022 across all payer groups — more than three times higher than the next most expensive condition: liveborn infants which accounted for 3.6% of aggregate costs.
- Among the most expensive conditions, liveborn infants were the most common reason for hospitalization at 10.6% of all hospital stays, followed by septicemia at 7.4%, heart failure at 3.3% and COVID-19 at 2.5%.
- Circulatory system conditions were the most frequent of the top 20 diagnoses for Medicare, private insurance or self-pay/no charge.
- Pregnancy and childbirth conditions were the most frequent among the top 20 conditions for Medicaid.
Here are the 20 most expensive conditions hospitals treat.
| Principal diagnosis condition | Aggregate hospital costs (Mil. USD) | National costs in percentages | Hospital stays |
| Septicemia* | 60,016 | 10.9% | 7.4% |
| Liveborn | 19,581 | 3.6% | 10.6% |
| Heart failure | 18,236 | 3.3% | 3.3% |
| Acute myocardial infarction | 16,332 | 3.0% | 1.8% |
| Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) | 16,038 | 2.9% | 2.5% |
| Spondylopathies/spondyloarthropathy | 14,002 | 2.6% | 1.4% |
| Diabetes mellitus with complication | 10,945 | 2.0% | 2.1% |
| Cerebral infarction | 10,940 | 2.0% | 1.6% |
| Cardiac dysrhythmias | 9,913 | 1.8% | 1.8% |
| Respiratory failure; insufficiency; arrest | 9,538 | 1.7% | 1.3% |
| Coronary atherosclerosis/other heart disease | 9,300 | 1.7% | 0.9% |
| Complications of other surgical/medical care, initial encounter | 7,968 | 1.5% | 1.0% |
| Fracture of neck of femur (hip), initial encounter | 7,656 | 1.4% | 1.0% |
| Nonrheumatic and unspecified valve disorders | 7,649 | 1.4% | 0.5% |
| Pneumonia | 7,648 | 1.4% | 1.7% |
| Acute and unspecified renal failure | 6,573 | 1.2% | 1.5% |
| Traumatic brain injury; concussion, initial encounter | 6,491 | 1.2% | 0.7% |
| Fracture of lower limb, initial encounter | 6,216 | 1.1% | 0.7% |
| Complications of cardiovascular device, initial encounter | 6,022 | 1.1% | 0.5% |
| Osteoarthritis | 5,618 | 1.0% | 0.8% |
*The CCSR for septicemia includes all sepsis infection codes and does not include the criteria of organ dysfunction. Expected payer is missing for 0.15% of records.
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