Emergency Room Costs for Mentally Ill Soar, and Hospitals Seek Better Way

Circle Connections: New Products & Services Nationally, more than 6.4 million visits to emergency rooms in 2010, or about five percent of total visits, involved patients whose primary diagnosis was a mental health condition or substance abuse. That is up 28 percent from just four years earlier, according to the latest figures available from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Md. By one federal estimate, spending by general hospitals to care for these patients is expected to nearly double to $38.5 billion in 2014, from $20.3 billion in 2003. The problem has been building . . .