Healthcare utilization is stable or even down in some parts of the industry but overall spending is still on the rise. Hospital executives trying to make sense of the impact on their own bottom line should know that, and according to a new report from the Health Care Cost Institute, rising prices are the cause.
From 2015 to 2016, total spending grew to $5,407 per person, a 4.6 percent increase. That growth was attributed largely to higher prices for emergency department visits, surgery and prescription drugs.
Drugs, in fact, saw the biggest price increases. Spending on brand-name prescription medications more than doubled between 2012 and 2016, growing 110 percent, though utilization was actually down 38 percent.
Prices for emergency room visits jumped 31.5 percent over that time, and while ER visits did increase, they did so only slightly. The price for surgical admissions increased by 30 percent, meanwhile, but utilization dropped 16 percent.
In 2016, increased spending on outpatient services was the biggest contributor to the annual growth in total spending, a change from prior years. In 2014 and 2015, prescription drug spending was the biggest contributor to total spending growth.
Inpatient and outpatient spending had similar growth trends during the study period, and both saw an uptick in 2016.
Professional services -- including visits to physicians, administered drugs, anesthesia, radiology and pathology -- made up the largest share of healthcare spending in 2016, but had relatively low spending growth between 2012 and 2016, rising a cumulative 11 percent.
Call it a healthcare executives good-news-bad-news situation: Hospital leaders frequently talk about and try to reduce utilization and that is, in fact, happening but it's perhaps for a reason that hurts the consumers who spend money on their services.
Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com