Institute for Fiscal Studies, IFS Working Paper W15/21, August 2015
- Analysis of administrative NHS hospital records found that costs per person start to increase after age 50 and escalate after age 70.
- Spending is highly concentrated in a small section of the population: with 32% of all hospital spending accounted for by 1% of the general population, and 18% of spending by 1% of all patients.
- There is persistence in spending over time with patients with high spending more likely to have spending in subsequent years, and those with zero expenditures more likely to remain out of hospital.
- The paper includes a description of the financial mechanisms used across the NHS.
- Note - UK pounds have been converted to US dollars throughout the paper.
