Healthcare Costs Up 7% by Sept.

Blitzer said September's results are consistent with a "moderating trend" in expenditure increases that have been seen in most of the indices in the S&P composite. He said a comparison of the 12 months to September with the 12 months to last February revealed that Medicare and the Hospital Medicare indices showed the most moderation in costs while the Hospital Commercial Index saw a slight increase in the growth of expenditures. "While encouraging, these trends can shift quickly as shown by patterns over recent years. Further, none of these data reflect the healthcare legislation enacted earlier this year," Blitzer said.

A further breakdown of the year-over-year change in the S&P Healthcare Economic Indices for the 12-month period ending September 2010 show that—despite the "moderating trend"—cost increases in healthcare are well above the Consumer Price Index, including: Hospital Index 7.15%; Hospital Medicare Index 3.96%; Hospital Commercial Index 9.62%; Professional Services Index 6.82%; Professional Services Medicare Index 5.42%; and Professional Services Commercial Index 7.42%