Home healthcare spending continues to climb. It soared to $113.5 billion in 2019, 7.7% higher than the year before, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary, which released the data on Wednesday.
The rate of growth in 2019 was higher than in 2018 (5.5%). Although out-of-pocket spending grew at about half of its 2018 rate, spending through Medicare, Medicaid and private health insurance all grew at faster rates in 2019 compared to the previous year, CMS said. Notably, Medicare and Medicaid together made up 71% of home health spending in 2019.
The rate of spending in this segment continues to dwarf other sectors. Year-over-year growth in nursing care facilities and continuing care retirement communities increased at a slower rate — 3.3% — compared with home healthcare. Total spending at $172.7 billion in these segments remains higher than home healthcare, however.
Overall healthcare spending was $3.8 trillion, up 4.6% compared with the previous year. And overall share of gross domestic product related to healthcare spending was at 17.7%, about the same as 2018’s 17.6%.
Looking ahead, Ann Martin, an economist in the CMS Office of the Actuary, noted that “the full impact of the pandemic on the healthcare sector is still not known, but it will certainly have profound consequences on the provision and consumption of healthcare in 2020 and perhaps beyond.”
