Report: Commercial payer hospital price growth lags behind Medicare

Hospital price growth is falling, according to a November price brief from Altarum. The price brief, released November 15, analyzed hospital price data per payer through October and compared it to previous years’ data.

In October, hospital price growth rose by 1.3% compared to October 2017, the lowest annual price growth rate since September 2017.

October also saw the continuation of another pricing anomaly, according to Altarum’s report. Typically, commercial payer hospital prices grow faster than Medicare and Medicaid hospital prices. However, this year has seen commercial payer hospital price growth fall below that of Medicare. In October, the annual hospital price growth for Medicare was 2.9%—down from 4.2% in September, and for commercial payers it was 1.2%—down from 2.6% in September. Medicare hospital price growth did fall as expected in October due to the October Medicare payment updates, but the report did not offer an explanation for the year-long slowdown of commercial payer price growth.