OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of COVID-19 vaccination in reducing standard hospitalization costs among COVID-19 patients in the US who required admission to the ICU or usage of ventilators.

METHODS: In this retrospective study, Optum’s de-identified Clinformatics® Data Mart database was used to identify all the patients above 18 years who underwent treatment for COVID-19 in the US between 1 Jan 2021 to 30 Sep 2021. The occurrence of the ICD-10 code for COVID-19 infection in the claims database was defined as the index event. These patients were then checked for admission to the ICU or usage of ventilators. The average length of stay and standard costs were compared between unvaccinated patients, and fully vaccinated patients (who had COVID-19 after 28 days of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine). Wilcoxon Whitney U test was applied to analyze the level of significance.

RESULTS: Out of 76,320 COVID-19 patients who required admission to the ICU or usage of ventilators, 75,839 (99.4%) were unvaccinated while 481 (0.4%) were fully vaccinated patients. The average length of stay among the unvaccinated (11.2 days) was significantly higher (p<.0001) as compared to fully vaccinated patients (8.8 days). Also, the mean standard costs among the unvaccinated ($30,025 for 49,724 patients) was significantly higher (p = .03) as compared to fully vaccinated patients ($23,170 for 205 patients).

CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced the average length of stay and standard hospitalization cost among the COVID-19 patients who required admission to the ICU or usage of ventilators.