OBJECTIVES: Intracranial injuries cause significant burden for healthcare systems and the society. Our aim was to determine the annual health insurance treatment cost of intracranial injury in Hungary.

METHODS: Data were derived from the financial database of the Hungarian National Health Insurance Fund Administration (NHIFA), for the year 2018. Data analysed included annual health insurance costs, patient numbers and cost distribution calculated for age groups and sex. The following cost categories were included into the study: general practice care, home care, in- and outpatient care, medical imaging, laboratory diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and medical aids. Patients with intracranial injury were identified with the following code of the International Classification of Diseases 10^th revision: S06.

RESULTS: In 2018, the Hungarian NHIFA spent 2.677 billion Hungarian Forints (HUF) on the treatment of patients with intracranial injury which equals to 9.90 million American Dollars (USD), or 8.39 million Euros (EUR). 64.5% of costs was spent on the treatment of male, 35.5% on female patients. The highest patient numbers were in CT diagnostics: 10,019 men (52.8%), and 8,950 women (47.2%), in total 18,969 patients. Acute inpatient care (84.3% of total health insurance costs in men, 79.3% in women), CT diagnostics (9.6% in men, 13.6% in women) and outpatient care (2.1% in men, 3.0% in women) were the main cost drivers, all other forms of medical care amounted to 4.0% in men and 4.1% in women. Annual health care treatment cost per patient was 172,387 HUF (638 USD/541 EUR) in men and 106,162 HUF (393 USD/333 EUR) in women.

CONCLUSIONS: Acute inpatient care was the major cost driver. There was minimal difference in major cost drivers between men and women. Average, annual health insurance costs per patient was 62% higher in men than in women.