A new report has emerged, showing that hospital spending in March 2018 was the leading factor in healthcare price increase. According to Altarum, who supplied the new report, the increased healthcare prices in March caused the overall healthcare prices to be at its highest since January 2012.
The increase in hospital prices could be attributed to hospitals having more aggressive negotiations, but according to an author from the report, they are not 100% sure why hospital prices are steadily increasing. According to an industry consultant, hospital price increase could be because hospitals have taken in the prescription drug prices and had increase their own prices to combat this. Prescription drug prices grew only by 1.9% in March 2018, while in March 2017, prescription drug prices were growing by 4.9%.
Last month, the Health Care Price Index rose by 2.2%, which hospitals accounting for 30% of overall health spending. In February, total healthcare spending was $3.6 trillion.
Read the original article from Modern Healthcare here.
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