"Cost creep due to age creep" phenomenon: pattern analyses of in-patient hospitalization costs for various age brackets in the United States.

The expectation that aging leads to a progressive deterioration of biological functions leading to higher healthcare costs is known as the healthcare cost creep due to age creep phenomenon. The authors empirically test the validity of this phenomenon in the context of hospitalization costs based on more than 8 million hospital inpatient records from 1,056 hospitals in the United States. The results question the existence of cost creep due to age creep after the age of 65 years as far as average hospitalization costs are concerned. The authors discuss implications for potential knowledge transfer for cost minimization and medical tourism.