Mental health hospital stays per person fell by a quarter since 2010 while the cost of each stay nearly doubled
AHRQ counts 697 mental health or substance use stays per 100,000 people in 2010 and 514 in 2023. The hospital's cost per stay went from $5,825 to $10,320 in nominal dollars, and the average stay lengthened from 6.9 to 7.5 days.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Nominal dollars are not inflation-adjusted; the file's own adjusted column is quoted so the two are not confused. A falling stay rate has more than one possible cause and the file does not choose between them.
Significant findings
AHRQ's national inpatient trend file gives, for stays with a mental health or substance use principal diagnosis: 2,154,064 stays in 2010 at a rate of 697.0 per 100,000 population, a cost per stay of $5,825 and an average length of stay of 6.9 days; and 1,719,031 stays in 2023 at 513.9 per 100,000, $10,320 per stay and 7.5 days. The same file's inflation-adjusted column puts the 2023 cost at $7,564, so the real increase since 2010 is about 30 percent and the rest is inflation.
For all inpatient stays, all causes, 2023: 33,718,585 stays, $17,697 per stay, 5.1 days. A mental health stay is cheaper per stay than the average and lasts about two and a half days longer. In 1994 a mental health stay averaged 10.1 days; in-hospital mortality for these stays was 0.13 percent in 2023.
"Cost" in HCUP is what the hospital spent to provide the care, derived from charges with cost-to-charge ratios, not what anyone was billed and not what was paid.
Worth asking
Fewer beds are used for this than in 2010, per person, and the survey rows say the share of people who are unwell did not fall over the same period. The file cannot say whether that is fewer admissions being needed or fewer being available. The payer row says who pays for the ones that happen.
Source
HCUP Fast Stats: National Trends in Inpatient Stays, data year 2023 (number of stays, cost per stay, length of stay, in-hospital mortality and rate per 100,000 by hospitalization type) — Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (2025)
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- not recorded
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
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Published September 17, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: Nominal dollars are not inflation-adjusted; the file's own adjusted column is quoted so the two are not confused. A falling stay rate has more than one possible cause and the file does not choose between them. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
HCUP Fast Stats: National Trends in Inpatient Stays, data year 2023 (number of stays, cost per stay, length of stay, in-hospital mortality and rate per 100,000 by hospitalization type) — Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (2025). The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.