Gastrointestinal (GI) diseases contribute substantially to health care costs in the US, with total expenditures reaching $135.9 billion annually in 2015 and hepatitis as the most expensive. Researchers estimated health care use and spending based on the most currently available administrative claims from commercial and Medicare Supplemental plans, data from the GI Quality Improvement Consortium Registry, and national databases. They found:

• Hepatitis ($23.2 billion) was the most expensive condition to treat in 2015, followed by esophageal disorders ($18.1 billion), biliary tract disease ($10.3 billion), abdominal pain ($10.2 billion), and inflammatory bowel disease ($7.2 billion).
• Yearly, there were >54.4 million ambulatory visits with a primary diagnosis for a GI disease, 3.0 million hospital admissions, and 540,500 all-cause 30-day readmissions.
• There were 266,600 new cases of GI cancers diagnosed and 144,300 cancer deaths.
• Each year, there were 97,700 deaths from non-malignant GI diseases.
• Among average-risk persons aged 50‒75 who underwent colonoscopy, 34.6% had ≥1 adenomatous polyps, 4.7% had ≥1 advanced adenomatous polyps, and 5.7% had ≥1 serrated polyps removed.