The 2022 Health Care Spending Report

CMS and the National Health Expenditure Accounts Team recently released the 2022 Health Care Spending Report comparing healthcare spending from 2016 to 2022 across multiple sectors of the industry and through multiple lenses. It is vital, as healthcare professionals, consumers, and taxpayers, that we understand the trends that are underway as they can forecast where future stressors and opportunities may arise. One overall trend that seems apparent is that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have settled out and the industry has returned to pre-pandemic levels. This is reflected in the healthcare expenditure rate and the share of healthcare as a proportion of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), both of which returned to 2016-2019 averages in 2022.

Other trends are equally compelling. Hospital care expenditures fell to 2.2% annual growth in 2022, down from 4.5% in 2021 and 6.3% in 2019. Physician and clinical services also fell to 2.7% annual growth in 2022, down from 5.3% in 2021 and 4.3% in 2019. Residential and personal care increased to 9.7% annual growth in 2022 from 6.7% in 2021 and 2.6% in 2019. Home health care also grew to 6.0% annual growth in 2022 from 0.3% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2019. Per enrollee expenditures for private health insurances went from $5,103 in 2016 to $6,330 in 2022. For Medicare, per enrollee expenditures went from $12,131 in 2016 to $14,814 in 2022, with enrollment growing from 55.8 million in 2016 to 63.7 million in 2022. Federal government healthcare spending increased 1.0% in 2022, while household healthcare expenditures grew 6.9% in 2022. 

Understanding where healthcare spending trends are going, where the expenditures are occurring, and what sectors of healthcare are expanding or contracting give us insight into areas of strength and weakness for the industry as a whole. This allows us to anticipate what CMS’ priorities will be, especially in the context of CMMI initiatives. This is just a taste of all the insights available in the 2022 Healthcare Spending Report that is available through the source material listed below. It will be a wise use of your time to investigate further.

Source Material:

“National Health Care Spending in 2022: Growth Similar to Prepandemic Rates” by Micah Hartman, Anne B. Martin, Lekha Whittle and Aaron Catlin, published on December 12, 20223 by Health Affairs and available at https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.01360