Revenue to hospitals from commercial insurers and fee-for-service Medicare during the year that ended in September grew at the slowest annual rate since January 2005, according to economic indices released by Standard & Poor's.

Health professional revenue from fee-for-service Medicare also increased at the slowest annual rate in more than seven years, Standard & Poor's said in a news release.

Growth cooled for several of the rating agency's healthcare cost indices, which estimate the per capita change in monthly hospital and health professional revenue, the release said. For the year that ended in September, annual growth rates continued to slow, David Blitzer, the Standard & Poor's index committee chairman, said in a statement (PDF). “This deceleration is quite substantial compared to historic patterns.”

Health professional revenue from commercial plans increased 8.5% in the year that ended in September compared with 8.9% for the year that ended in August. The composite of Medicare fee-for-service and commercial plan revenue growth for the year ended in September was 6.13% compared with 6.67% for the year ended in August.

Hospitals' composite revenue from Medicare fee-for-service and commercial plans grew 3.84% in the 12 months that ended in September after increasing 4.54% during the year that ended in August.

Medicare fee-for-service hospital revenue grew 2.17% during the year ended in September after a 2.35% gain in the year ended in August. Hospital commercial plan revenue grew at a slower 5.12% annual rate during the year that ended in September than during the same period ending in August, when the annual rate was 6.24%.