Cost increases incurred by hospitals in the U.S. slowed in 2006
28 08 08 - 11:48
Report: Hospital costs slow under pressure by insurers
By Avram Goldstein - Bloomberg News
WASHINGTON — Cost increases incurred by hospitals in the U.S. slowed in 2006 as health insurers pressed for discounts and directed more people to outpatient care, according to a government report.
Expenses for providing care rose 0.9 percent in 2006, the latest year reviewed, compared with the average annual increase of 4.8 percent for 1997 through 2006, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality said in a report Wednesday.
Inflation-adjusted costs climbed by more than half to $329.2 billion in 2006, from $216.3 billion in 1997, the agency said.
The rate of increase in 2006 probably reflects pressures applied by insurers that promoted the use of outpatient care, said Claudia Steiner, a research physician for the Rockville, Md.-based agency.
While membership in employer-sponsored health plans has eroded since 2003, millions of elderly and disabled Americans have joined government-backed Medicare Advantage health plans that negotiate provider discounts.
Since 2003, the Advantage population has grown to 10.1 million, mostly in plans that have contracted for provider discounts.
Other U.S. data have shown that growth in consumers' health costs rose at the slowest pace in 36 years in the first half of 2008 as insurers resisted price increases and patients used generic drugs more often.
The only major diagnostic groups for which hospital costs declined from 2003 to 2006 were pneumonia.
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