June spending on hospital care rises at slowest rate in [at least] 28 years

National spending for hospital care decelerated to near stall speed in June, registering the smallest year-over-year increase in 28 years, an Altarum Institute analysis has found.

The revised June increase of just 0.8% is being driven by consumers and payers seeking outpatient settings for more procedures, said Paul Hughes-Cromwick, co-director of Altarum's Center for Sustainable Health Spending in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Hospitals also are elevating quality to reduce readmissions and hospital-acquired infections, among other reasons for the decline, Hughes-Cromwick said.

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The June increase was the smallest year-over-year boost in hospital care spending since Altarum began keeping records in 1989.

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By analyzing Medicare data, KPMG found that hospital admission rates dropped 9% between 2012 and 2015 for Medicare beneficiaries with three or more chronic conditions.

That's an indicator that efforts to improve coordination of care is starting to pay off, the study noted.

"We are learning that coordination of care is key to reducing unnecessary admissions and readmissions," said Dr. Cynthia Ambres, principal at KPMG Strategy.

Healthcare prices also remained tame in July, rising 1.5% year-over-year, the same as in June, Altarum found.

Hughes-Cromwick said private insurers are starting to follow the lead of Medicare and Medicaid by ratcheting down on prices.

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Hawkeye10 said:

Great......but there is essentially no progress on the big number that is ruining America, national healthcare spending as a percent of GDP.

Neither ObamaCare nor anything else has worked on the actual main problem.

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Greenbeard said:

Altarum's analysis shows that health spending has lately been growing slower than the rest of the economy which is the literal definition of "bending the cost curve."

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Hawkeye10 said:

Growing more slowly is not going to cut it.

It needs to shrink to something more like the rest of the world pays for better care than we get.

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Greenbeard said:

There's zero chance of that happening, unless you impose immediate and extreme government price controls and force massive layoffs in our health sector.

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Hawkeye10 said:

There being Zero chance of getting done what needs to be done is an all too common situation these days.

That is called "Civilization Circling The Drain".

SAD

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Greenbeard said:

It's called "health care on track to be the largest employment sector in the United States." So many folks are quick to note that health care is a sixth of the economy, apparently without simultaneously realizing it's the livelihood of a lot of people in this country. Slowing the growth to sustainable levels is the best we can do, unless you want to abruptly throw a lot of people out of work.

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Hawkeye10 said:

Spending almost 19% of gdp

Jobs delivered 9%

Your argument does not hunt.

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Greenbeard said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're counting just people who are actually health care practitioners (and health care executives/mangers), yes? Not actuaries, financial folks, billers, coders, the entire health insurance sector, call center folks, miscellaneous staff at health care facilities, those who build health care facilities and so on?

I'm not arguing that "health care" salaries aren't on net disproportionately high, I'm saying that if you start closing hospitals the economic effects extend beyond those who deliver health care services at them.

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While additional steps could be taken to make the delivery of health care more efficient, the key is to unlock innovations that reduce – not reinforce – the labor intensity. Unless we do more to shift much of the day-to-day work to the patient, from high-cost workers to lower-cost labor and from people to technology, we will not be able to control the spiraling costs of health care

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Another example is shifting work from nurses to other capable workers, such as lay patient navigators. Unlike nurses lay navigators are typically community members who are trained to help individuals manage barriers, such as financial, emotional or logistical, that lead patients to deviate from a care plan. Accenture estimates navigators can offset up to 25 percent of the work typically handled by nurses or case workers.

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Hawkeye10 said:

This should upset you:

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Greenbeard said:

Periodic reminder that these are unusual times.

June spending on hospital care rises at slowest rate in 28 years

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