Initial hospital costs for gun injuries tops $1B per year: GAO report

The cost of initial treatment for gun-related injuries in hospitals exceeds $1 billion per year, with public health coverage accounting for the majority of the bill, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.

The GAO’s report released Wednesday found hospitals documented about 30,000 inpatient stays and about 50,000 emergency department visits for initial treatment for gun-related injuries per year, according to the most recent hospital data from 2016 and 2017.

But the data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality did not include the physician costs, which the office predicted could add about 20 percent to the $1 billion total.