Hospital Prices Lead Rise in Health Care Costs, Study Finds

A new study has concluded that rising hospital prices, not increased utilization, is primarily responsible for rising health care costs.

Overall, according to a new analysis by the Health Care Cost Institute, health care costs continue to rise despite declining health care utilization.

Among the report’s findings:

• Hospital prices are rising faster than physician prices.
• ER prices rose more than twice as much as ER utilization in 2017.
• Increases in spending for psychiatric services outpaced increases in utilization of those services.
• Inpatient spending rose 10 percent between 2013 and 2017 even though inpatient utilization fell five percent during that period.
• Over that same period, outpatient surgery prices rose 14 percent while utilization declined four percent.

The report also found that health insurance prices are rising faster than wage growth.

Learn more about trends in health care costs and utilization from the Health Care Cost Institute analysis “2017 Health Care Cost and Utilization Report.”