Spending on dwelling well being care stayed principally flat in 2021, a brand new evaluation from the Workplace of the Actuary on the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers (CMS) reveals.
The regular spending on dwelling well being care final yr got here regardless of a pointy dip in authorities funding tied to the general public well being emergency (PHE). The lower in PHE-related funding was usually offset by a rebounding of well being care utilization throughout the board, based on the evaluation, printed on-line Wednesday by Well being Affairs.
“Federal COVID aid funding had a better affect on progress for nursing care services and residential well being care than it did for different professionals or dental companies, as nursing properties and residential well being care companies acquired a considerable amount of supplemental funding in 2020,” CMS statistician Micah Hartman stated throughout a convention name with members of the media.
Particularly, nationwide well being expenditures on dwelling well being care totaled $125.2 billion in 2021, a year-over-year enhance of lower than 1%, based on the CMS evaluation.
From 2015 to 2020, nationwide well being spending on dwelling well being care climbed from $89.6 billion to $125 billion. The biggest year-over-year bounce got here in 2020, when spending elevated by greater than $12.6 billion over 2019 largely due to COVID aid.
Authorities spending on Paycheck Safety Program (PPP) loans and the Supplier Reduction Fund totaled $52.4 billion and $121.6 billion, respectively, in 2020. Final yr, these numbers dropped to $21.4 billion and $28.3 billion.
“In 2021, the [COVID-related] supplemental federal spending for nursing properties and residential well being care declined to a a lot decrease stage, bringing down the general progress fee for each sectors, with nursing dwelling spending declining in 2021,” continued Hartman, one of many lead authors of the CMS evaluation.
Whereas dwelling well being spending stayed flat, nationwide well being expenditures on nursing care services and persevering with care retirement communities (CCRCs) decreased from $196.9 billion to $181.3 billion from 2020 to 2021.
General, well being care spending within the U.S. grew 2.7% to succeed in $4.3 trillion in 2021, a a lot slower fee than the rise of 10.3% seen in 2020.
The share of the financial system accounted for by the well being sector fell from 19.7% in 2020 to 18.3% in 2021. Whereas well being care accounted for a smaller piece of the pie, expenditures have been nonetheless increased than the 17.6% share in 2019.
“The developments in well being care spending in 2020 and 2021 are inextricably linked to the various distinctive impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the evaluation emphasised. “In 2020, the unprecedented authorities response to the pandemic dramatically elevated federal well being care spending by way of numerous packages and elevated federal public well being expenditures. On the identical time, mitigation efforts comparable to stay-at-home orders, social distancing, and restrictions on the usage of well being care companies tended to scale back the usage of well being care, whereas the direct remedy of individuals with COVID-19 and elevated testing offset a few of that discount.”
Medicare spending accounted for 21% of whole nationwide well being care expenditures and reached $900.8 billion in 2021, up 8.4% over the earlier yr. Medicare fee-for-service expenditures, specifically, grew by 3.9% and accounted for greater than half of all Medicare spending.
In the meantime, Medicaid spending accounted for 17% of whole well being care expenditures in 2021, reaching $734 billion. That determine was a 9.2% enhance in comparison with 2020.
