OBJECTIVES: Hospitalization due to COVID-19 has huge implications for the patients and the government as it causes huge financial stress. 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.

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 hospitalization for the treatment of COVID-19. 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 277,319 COVID-19 patients, 274,165 (98.9%) were unvaccinated while 3,154 (1.1%) were fully vaccinated patients. The average length of stay among the unvaccinated (7.7 days) was statistically higher (p<.0001) as compared to fully vaccinated patients (7.2 days). Also, the mean standard costs among the unvaccinated ($39,328 for 120,727 patients) was statistically higher (p = .0009) as compared to fully vaccinated patients ($35,410 for 496 patients).

CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 vaccines significantly reduced the average length of stay and standard hospitalization cost among the COVID-19 patients. Thus COVID-19 vaccines can reduce the burden on the healthcare system.