ABSTRACT
Objective: This study aimed to analyze the high medical expenses of hospitalized medical insurance patients for the first ten systemic diseases.Methods: We investigated the medical expenses for the first ten systemic diseases among 10 900 hospitalized medical insurance patients of a hospital,calculated the average expenses and total payment for the treatment of each of the systemic diseases that involved 5% of the total patients,computed their percentage in the total expenses,and compared them with those of all the other hospitalized cases.Results: The medical cost of the 5% of the first 10 hospitalized systemic diseases accounted for 21%-29.9% of the total expenses of all the hospitalized patients,4.3-6.0 times that of the average expenses,and 30.8%-54.9% paid by the patients themselves.In addition,the hospital stay of these patients was 1.5-4.7 times that of the average.Conclusion: The high medical expenses involving 5% of the hospitalized patients with the first 10 systemic diseases amounted to a quarter of those paid by all the hospitalized patients.Effective measures have to be taken to keep high hospitalization expenses at a reasonable level.