Hospitals could save $2 billion each year by screening emergency room patients for alcohol use and offering them brief interventions, according to a new study.

“Alcohol is by far the leading risk factor for injuries,” said researcher Larry Gentilello, professor of surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. “Patients are most likely to consider changing a harmful behavior when that behavior has caused a crisis or severe problem in their life. It appears that an injury makes patients with an alcohol problem much more responsive to counseling. If brief interventions were offered routinely to these patients nationwide, the annual net savings to hospitals and insurers could be up to $1.82 billion.”

Cost savings included avoiding the expense of repeat injuries caused by alcohol, the leading cause of injury; Gentilello estimated that hospitals save $3.81 for every dollar spent on brief counseling of ER patients.

Many US hospitals don’t screen patients for alcohol use because a 1947 law – still on the books in 36 states and the District of Columbia – allows insurers to deny payments to patients if their injuries occur because of alcohol use. Six states, however, have recently repealed the law.

The study appears in the Annals of Surgery.

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