As reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Thursday, overall hospital prices have increased over the last year.
Hospital prices increased 0.1 percent in February this year, and were 1.9 percent higher than a year ago. Prices for the subgroup of general medical and surgical hospitals increased 0.1 percent in February, and were 1.9 percent higher than in February 2011, according to the BLS' Producer Price Indices (PPI), which measure average changes in selling prices received by domestic producers for their output.
For hospitals, this translates into actual or expected reimbursement for a sample of treatments or services. The PPI for hospitals measure changes in actual or expected reimbursement received for services across the full range of payer types. This includes the negotiated contract rate from the payer plus any portion expected to be paid by the patient.