By CQ Staff
May 31, 2012 – Health care cost growth is continuing to slow and costs will increase by a relatively modest 7.5 percent next year, according to an analysis recently released by the Health Research Institute (HRI).
Health care spending is a major concern for policymakers and for Medicare as the program seeks to keep quality high while containing costs.
"Medical cost trend in 2013 will surprise the industry with another year of historically low growth," the report says. HRI is the health research division of PwC. Factors include a slow economy, more focus on cost containment by the health care industry, less use of health care services by patients spending less money and more work by employers to keep expenses low, the report says.
Health care providers like doctors and hospitals may have to take a look at their business models to adjust to a "new normal" of lower spending growth, the analysis also says.
- PwC Report (pdf)