Heart failure is the most expensive heart condition treated in hospitals, a Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project report found.
The report, published February 2026, used 2022 data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project on hospital costs of inpatient stays in nonfederal acute care hospitals. Using the 2022 HCUP National Inpatient Sample, the report found the distribution of costs by primary expected payer and the conditions that accounted for the largest percentage of payer’s hospital costs. Hospital charges were converted to costs using HCUP cost-to-charge ratios. Payers included Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and self-pay/no charge.
The report found:
- The aggregate hospital costs for 32.9 million hospital stays totaled $548.5 billion.
- The 20 most expensive conditions account for 46.8% of aggregate hospital costs in 2022, and amounted to 43.1% of all hospital stays.
- Circulatory system conditions were the most frequent of the top 20 diagnoses for Medicare, private insurance or self-pay/no charge.
Here are the 20 most expensive conditions hospitals treat.
| Principal diagnosis condition | Aggregate hospital costs | National costs in percentages | Hospital stays |
| Septicemia* | $60 billion | 10.9% | 7.4% |
| Liveborn | $19.5 billion | 3.6% | 10.6% |
| Heart failure | $18.2 billion | 3.3% | 3.3% |
| Acute myocardial infarction | $16 billion | 3.0% | 1.8% |
| Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) | $16 billion | 2.9% | 2.5% |
| Spondylopathies/spondyloarthropathy | $14 billion | 2.6% | 1.4% |
| Diabetes mellitus with complication | $10.9 billion | 2.0% | 2.1% |
| Cerebral infarction | $10.9 billion | 2.0% | 1.6% |
| Cardiac dysrhythmias | $9.9 billion | 1.8% | 1.8% |
| Respiratory failure; insufficiency; arrest | $9.5 billion | 1.7% | 1.3% |
| Coronary atherosclerosis/other heart disease | $9.3 billion | 1.7% | 0.9% |
| Complications of other surgical/medical care, initial encounter | $7.9 billion | 1.5% | 1.0% |
| Fracture of neck of femur (hip), initial encounter | $7.65 billion | 1.4% | 1.0% |
| Nonrheumatic and unspecified valve disorders | $7.64 billion | 1.4% | 0.5% |
| Pneumonia | $7.64 billion | 1.4% | 1.7% |
| Acute and unspecified renal failure | $6.5 billion | 1.2% | 1.5% |
| Traumatic brain injury; concussion, initial encounter | $6.4 billion | 1.2% | 0.7% |
| Fracture of lower limb, initial encounter | $6.2 billion | 1.1% | 0.7% |
| Complications of cardiovascular device, initial encounter | $6 billion | 1.1% | 0.5% |
| Osteoarthritis | $5.6 billion | 1.0% | 0.8% |
*The CCSR for septicemia includes all sepsis infection codes and does not include the criteria of organ dysfunction. Expected payer is missing for 0.15% of records.
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