The price of addiction. Drug and alcohol abuse sets people on a path toward heart disease, cancer and other chronic illnesses. A study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment reports that hospital costs for this medical fallout can be substantial — and could be avoided with more drug and alcohol treatment. Patricia Santora of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues found that 14 percent of people admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1994 to 2002 were alcohol or drug abusers. Of these more than 43,000 patients, about half abused two or more drugs, resulting in hospital costs in 2002 of $28 million. An additional 25 percent abused alcohol only, incurring $20 million in hospital costs in 2002. “Virtually all . . . were admitted for the medical and psychiatric consequences of their abuse,” Santora says. Researchers noted that whether people were covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private companies, insurers spend very little on addiction treatment to prevent medical consequences of abuse — less than 1 percent of private insurance claims and less than 2 percent of Medicaid claims. Los Angeles Times
