Year-over-year growth in the home health space was 13.5% in October, making it the fastest-growing component of national health spending, according to Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released Thursday.
Nursing home care spending grew by 7.8% for the same period, after having in September represented one of the fastest-growing categories of national health spending; spending on home care, on the other hand at that time, however, showed the slowest growth rate.
The Altarum brief expands on the official estimate of Medicare and Medicaid expenses in 2022, as reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the January issue of the journal Health Affairs. Altarum expanded on CMS’ research to include data through October 2023.
Growth rates in both home care and nursing home care spending exceeded overall growth in national health expenditures in 2022, which was 4.1%, Altarum Fellow and Senior Researcher George Miller told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
Year-over-year prices for nursing home care grew by 5.1%; prices for home healthcare increased by 4.6%.
“Both exceeded the overall growth in prices for healthcare, which was 3.1% in October, year over year,” Miller said. “Price growth in November was somewhat lower, at 4.3% for home healthcare and 4% for nursing homes, year over year, according to our HSEI estimates.”
Personal healthcare spending growth in October was 7.7%, year over year. That growth was driven by increased use rather than price increases, according to Altarum.
Job growth
Meanwhile, in November, the healthcare sector added 76,800 jobs, tying July for most jobs added in a month over the past year, according to Altarum. Most of the increase came from ambulatory care settings, which collectively added 35,800 jobs, and hospitals, which added 23,700 jobs.
Employment in nursing and residential care facilities grew by 6.7% in November, year over year, “representing one of the highest growth rates among healthcare components,” however, Miller said. “Employment in home health care grew by 4.4% over the same period.”
Nursing and residential care facilities added 17,300 jobs in November. Nursing homes added 5,700 of those jobs, with other nursing and residential care settings adding 11,600 jobs.
Healthcare employment growth is showing signs of slowing, however, according to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
Wage growth in healthcare settings was highest in nursing and residential care, at 4.7% year over year in October, followed by hospitals at 4% and ambulatory care settings at 3.2%, according to the brief.
