Center for Studying Health System Change

Providing Insights that Contribute to Better Health Policy

Home About HSC Publications News Room Conferences Links Site Map

Advanced Search Instructions

You can refine your search with the following modifiers:

*	Use an to perform a wildcard search.Example: prescript* would return "prescription", "prescriptions" etc.
""	Use quotes to match a phrase.Example: "prescription drug" only returns results where the words are next to each other.
+	Use a plus sign to perform a search where the additional term MUST be part of the page.Example: prescription +drug
-	Use a minus sign to perform a search where the additional term SHOULD NOT be part of the page.Example: prescription -drug
< >	Use a < > sign to perform a search where the additional term should be of greater or lesser importance in the search.Example: prescription >drug Find pages with the word precription with additional importance for the word drug.
( )	Use parentheses to group different search terms together.Example: prescription (+medicare -drug)

Tracking Health Care Costs

Hospital Care Surpasses Drugs as the Key Cost Driver

September 26th 2001
Health Affairs, web exclusive (Sept. 26, 2001)
Bradley C. Strunk, Paul B. Ginsburg, Jon R. Gabel

his article provides an update on trends in health care costs since 1999. Although the growth rate in overall costs has been stable since 1999, the trend in costs for hospital services rose, while that for prescription drugs declined, although it remains extremely high. Increased growth in hospital costs reflects the retreat from tightly managed care and labor shortages. The discrepancy between premium trends and cost trends has increased, which reflects the health insurance underwriting cycle. If these trends continue, likely responses by employers would lead to consumers facing higher out-of-pocket costs and an increase in the number of uninsured persons.

Free access to this article is available at the Health Affairs Web site.