Spending in home healthcare outpaced other healthcare sectors in November, according to Altarum’s monthly Health Sector Economic Indicators brief, released Wednesday.
“In November 2023, year-over-year spending on home healthcare grew the fastest among major spending categories, at 12.9%,” Altarum Fellow and Senior Researcher George Miller told the McKnight’s Business Daily. “Spending on nursing home care during the same period grew by 7.9%.”
Prescription drug spending saw 12.2% growth, whereas spending on dental services and hospital care increased the least, at 5.8% and 5.9%, respectively, among major categories.
Overall, personal spending on healthcare goods and services was 7.3% in November, year over year.
“The rapid growth in home healthcare spending was driven largely by increased utilization rather than prices. Utilization increased by 8.6% year over year, while prices grew by 4.3%,” Miller said. “For nursing home care, the growth was split evenly between utilization and prices, with utilization increasing by 4%, year over year.”
Jobs growth
According to Altarum, “slow healthcare employment growth in December capped off a historic year of job creation in 2023. …Although healthcare employment growth slowed in December, the year 2023 saw historic growth in the sector, with 654,000 jobs added, accounting for almost a quarter of all jobs economy wide.”
In December, nursing facilities and residential care facilities added a net of 3,200 jobs. Nursing homes added 4,700 jobs, whereas other nursing and residential care settings lost 1,500 jobs.
“As of December, nursing and residential care employment remains 154,200 jobs (4.6%) below pre-pandemic levels,” Miller said. “December employment in home healthcare services grew by 7,000.”
December’s healthcare job growth was led by growth in ambulatory care settings, which added 19,200 jobs, and hospitals, which added 15,300 jobs.
Wage growth in December in healthcare settings was highest in nursing and residential care, at 4% year over year, followed by hospitals at 3.3% and ambulatory care settings at 2.4%.
According to Argentum, the economy overall added 216,000 jobs in December, slightly below the 12-month average of 224,750. The unemployment rate was stable at 3.7%.
“Progress on inflation has brightened the economic picture despite a slowdown in hiring and pay,” ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson said in an unrelated report published Wednesday from the ADP Research Institute in collaboration with the Stanford Digital Economy Lab.
