Healthcare spending picked up in 2011: report

The Health Care Cost Institute, an insurer-funded not-for-profit research group based in Washington, found per capita healthcare spending on those under age 65 with employer-backed insurance rose 4.6% to $4,547 in 2011.

The increase in 2011 follows a rise of 3.8% in 2010 and 5.8% in 2009, based on an analysis of claims data from Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare. (Kaiser Permanente is contributing data for future reports.)

The report, which does not include premium costs, attributed most of the jump in per capita spending growth to price increases for care. In general, utilization was flat, said Carolina-Nicole Herrera, director of research for the HCCI.

Inpatient per capita spending rose 4.8% to $963 in 2011, up from growth of 3.6% in 2010, while spending for outpatient care rose 6.8% to $1,245, a lower rate of growth than 2010 when spending climbed 8%.

The report, called Health Care Cost and Utilization Report: 2011, found that out-of-pocket spending for patients rose 4.6% to $735. At the same time, the number of people with employer-backed insurance fell an estimated 0.3% to 156 million. “We're seeing a decline in the number of covered lives,” Herrera said.

David Newman, HCCI's executive director, said the organization is working to create a model in which it can operate without what was an initial three-year funding commitment of $500,000 each from Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcare.