Study: Hospital prices main driver of healthcare spending increases

Hospital prices are the main driver of U.S. healthcare spending inflation, and that trend should direct any policy changes going forward, according to a new study (Source: “Hospital price growth driving healthcare spending,” Modern Healthcare, Feb. 4, 2019). 

For inpatient care, hospital prices grew 42 percent from 2007 to 2014 while physician prices rose 18 percent, according to researchers who studied the Health Care Cost Institute's claims data for people with employer-sponsored insurance from Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare Group. Similarly, for hospital-based outpatient care, hospital prices increased 25 percent while physician prices grew 6 percent, the new Health Affairs study found. 

Insurance costs a family of four about $19,000 a year. The reason costs vary so much across the country is because of the price of hospital care, which is the largest single component of healthcare costs in the U.S., said Zack Cooper, a study co-author and an associate professor of health policy at Yale University.