The $$ of COVID

In addition to the physical and psychological costs of caring for a COVID patient, there are real economic costs. The biggest of these costs in the case of an extended hospitalization are for life saving procedures and the time spent in the Intensive Care Unit and the recovery room.

In most cases, if the patient has insurance, the bulk of these costs will be covered. In my case the billed care costs just for the time hospitalized came in at $178,527.55. Over $100,000 of this was just for the ICU room. Another $15,000 went to pharmacy. The other larger costs were for radiology, physical, respiratory and occupational therapy. The lowest cost item was for provider care. I had 14 different providers taking care of me and consulting on my care and treatment. Frankly, I was surprised this bill was so low.

I had researched the costs of providing care for hospitalized COVID patients in other areas of the country and costs for a stay in ICU and one month in the hospital ranged from $500,000 to more than $1 million. My costs do not include the pre-admission care which was $6,000 or the post-COVID hospitalization. Post-COVID care includes the cost of follow-up appointments, prescriptions, oxygen and time and travel for family or other caregivers. We don’t know that final cost as I am still in recovery.

Projecting this forward, costs could exceed $250,000. Using this as low average for COVID hospitalization and extrapolating it to the neatly one million patients hospitalized, the total current cost of COVID hospitalization in the US would exceed $750 billion. This figure exceeds the gross domestic product for more than other 150 countries.