business
Prices for doctor services up, but growth still lags overall inflation
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted May 28, 2012
The amount of money spent by patients and insurers per physician service went up 0.3% in April and 1.4% for the 12 months prior, according to the monthly Consumer Price Index report issued May 15 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The numbers were slightly higher than March but still off from inflation in the economy as a whole. The growth in the prices paid for physician services was 0.2% in March and 1.3% for the year running up to that month.
The overall inflation rate was zero for April and 2.3% for the previous 12 months. For March, the overall inflation rate was 0.3% and the annual rate was 2.6%.
The annual inflation rate for physician services has been below that for the general economy for 13 months running. The monthly rate has been lower for eight of the past 13 months.
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, prices paid for physician services outpaced inflation, and health policy experts say more recent trends are the result of the much-maligned sustainable growth rate formula used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to set Medicare payments. Commercial payers usually follow the lead of the SGR.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/05/28/bibf0528.htm.
