Wholesale prices for acute-care hospitals climbed 0.9% in October after the prior month's 1.1% drop, newly released preliminary figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show.

In October 2011, wholesale acute-care hospital prices increased 0.7%, according to the BLS producer price index. For the year that ended last month, the index posted a 2.6% gain in wholesale acute-care hospital prices. That's compared with 2.4% for the prior year.

For physician offices, the producer price index climbed 0.2% last month, compared with a 1% jump in September. A year ago, wholesale physician office prices also increased 0.2%. For the year that ended last month, wholesale physician office prices increased 0.9%, compared with 1.3% the prior year.