The report, Massachusetts Health Care Cost Trends Part III: Health Spending Trends for Privately Insured 2006-2009, contributed this growth in hospital outpatient departments to procedures and imaging costs.
Total expenditures for inpatient hospital care rose from $1.92 billion in 2006 to $13.38 billion in 2008 (14.8 percent increase). For hospital outpatient departments, expenditures rose from $2.42 billion in 2006 to $3.05 billion in 2008 (26.4 percent increase). For free-standing outpatient facilities, expenditures dropped from $297 million to $255 million from 2006-2008, a 14.0 percent decrease.
In the three-year period, growth in spending grew $1.73 billion, with hospital outpatient services accounting for 36.8 percent of total growth in spending. Inpatient hospital care represented 18.7 percent of total spending in Massachusetts over the period, and free-standing facilities experienced a 2.4 percent decrease as part of total growth.
Read the Massachusetts Health Care Cost Trends Part III: Health Spending Trends for Privately Insured 2006-2009 report.
