In September 2023, nursing home care represented one of the fastest-growing categories of national health spending, with an increase of 9.8% since the same month last year. This was due to both rising prices and utilization, 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. Despite the fact that home healthcare prices have been growing at a rate that is among the fastest among the major categories, a slight decline in utilization was attributed to this slower growth.

According to the report from Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economics Brief, year-over-year spending growth among other major healthcare categories 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 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).

Despite GDP growth continuing to outpace total health spending, personal healthcare spending grew at a faster rate than 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 by adding 4,400 jobs while home healthcare added slightly above average monthly over past year with adding