According to Altarum’s latest Health Sector Economics Brief, nursing home care in September 2023 represented one of the fastest-growing categories of national health spending, surpassed only by spending on prescription drugs. The spending on nursing home care increased by 9.8% compared to September 2022 due to both price and utilization increases, as informed by Altarum fellow and Senior Researcher George Miller.

On the other hand, spending on home care showed the slowest growth rate among major categories of national health spending, increasing just 5.5% in September. This was attributed to a slight decline in utilization of home healthcare services, despite the fact that home healthcare prices have been growing at a rate that is among the fastest among the major categories.

Year-over-year spending growth among other major healthcare categories according to the report are as follows: prescription drugs at 11.8%, dental care at 9.8%, physician and clinical services at 8.9%, and hospital care at 6.9%. National health spending overall has increased by 5.7%, year over year, reaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $4.78 trillion, accounting for 17.2% of gross domestic product (GDP).

While the GDP growth rate continues to outpace the growth in total health spending, personal healthcare spending has grown at a rate faster than the GDP since February 2023 and grew by 7.4%, year over year, in September, according to the brief. Nursing homes showed modest employment growth in October, adding 4,400 jobs while home healthcare added 9,500 jobs in October which is slightly above the monthly average over the past year as mentioned by Miller