$420 per day on average
1 The incremental costs incurred by patients on their last full day of hospital stay were $420 per day on average, or just 2.4 percent of the $17,734 average total cost. 2  End-of-stay costs represented only a slightly higher percentage of total costs when the length of stay was as short as four days. 1 The remaining 58 percent was hospital overhead. 2  The first day of admission cost $1,246 on average, while the cost of discharging a patient averaged $304. 3  Approximately 40 percent of the costs were incurred during the first 3 days. Findings. Hospital costs by age, 2010. In 2010, the average cost per hospital stay was $9,700 and the aggregate cost for all hospital stays totaled $375.9 billion. Figures 1 and 2 show the distribution of aggregate hospital costs and stays by age and the average hospital cost per stay by age, respectively. Adults ages 45–64 and 65–84 had the highest average cost per. stay ($12,100 and $12,300, respectively). They found: 1  The incremental costs incurred by patients on their last full day of hospital stay were $420 per day on average, or just 2.4 percent of the $17,734 average total cost. 2  End-of-stay costs represented only a slightly higher percentage of total costs when the length of stay was as short as four days. 1 The remaining 58 percent was hospital overhead. 2  The first day of admission cost $1,246 on average, while the cost of discharging a patient averaged $304. 3  Approximately 40 percent of the costs were incurred during the first 3 days. Hospital and Surgery Costs. Total health care spending in America was approximately $2.7 trillion in 2011. A little over 31 percent of that amount, or $814 billion, was spent on hospital services. Hospital costs averaged $3,949 per day, and costs per stay averaged $15,734. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the total number of inpatient surgeries performed in 2009 was 48 million. In 2011, hospital stays cost a cumulative $387.3 billion, which averages out to about $10,000 per stay, according to a new statistical brief from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.  On average, U.S. hospital deliveries cost $3,500 per stay, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Add in prenatal, delivery-related and post-partum healthcare, and you're looking at an $8,802 tab, according to a Thomson Healthcare study for March of Dimes. For example, a delivery stay costs an average of 55 percent more ($5,900) for a woman with diabetes, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. Premature birth is one of the largest game-changers in terms of medical costs, occurring in about 1 of 8 pregnancies. Among the results: Cost per day for hospital charges averaged $3,949 in the U.S., followed by Chile at $1,552. The average hospital cost for a U.S. patient’s total stay was $15,734; Germany was next at $5,004. For appendectomies, the total facility and physician costs averaged $13,003 in the U.S., followed by Switzerland at $5,840. March 06, 2012 | By Patrick McMahon. The average hospital cost for a U.S. patient's total stay was $15,734;… (Jamie Rector / For The Times). A study comparing prices for hospital stays, physician office visits, drugs and other medical procedures in developed countries shows U.S. prices among the most expensive. Hospital stays can put a strain on your personal finances. The average cost of a one-day stay in the hospital is over $1,700.*. This valuable coverage provides fixed payments when you’re hospitalized to help cover out-of-pocket costs. Accidents and illnesses can happen-and sometimes result in an inpatient hospital stay.  Charges are lower overseas, despite longer stays. The cost of the average American hospital stay nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010 while average stay length declined. The decade was a period of low inflation, but some sectors of the economy didn’t get the memo. 
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=9413 http://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb146.pdf http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=9413 https://www.debt.org/medical/hospital-surgery-costs/ http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/11-statistics-on-average-hospital-costs-per-stay.html http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/considering-baby/financing-family/birth-hospital-costs/ http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/06/business/la-fi-mo-u.s.-medical-prices-high-20120306 http://www.aetna.com/voluntary/hospital.html http://www.facethefactsusa.org/facts/hospital-costs-nearly-double-in-decade
average hospital stay cost