Costs of Emergency Department Visits for Mental and Substance Use Disorders in the United States, 2017

This HCUP Statistical Brief presents statistics on the costs of ED visits with diagnoses of mental and substance use disorders (MSUDs) in the United States using the 2017 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS). ED visits include patients treated and released from the ED as well as those admitted to the same hospital through the ED. Total (aggregate) and average costs for MSUD ED visits are presented by MSUD diagnosis category. Total and average costs for MSUD ED visits are also presented by select patient and hospital characteristics compared with costs for all ED visits. The distribution of total ED visit costs for the five most costly MSUD diagnoses is presented by patient age group and primary expected payer. Because of the large sample size of the NEDS data, small differences can be statistically significant. Thus, only percentage differences in estimates or proportions greater than or equal to 10 percent are discussed in the text.