Surging hospital prices are helping keep inflation high

Surging hospital prices are helping keep inflation high
Wall Street Journal; by Melanie Evans; 5/16/24
A 7.7% increase in prices at hospitals last month was the highest in 13 years. ... Hospitals didn’t raise prices as early in the pandemic as supermarkets, retailers and restaurants. But they have been making up ground since then. Their increases have contributed to stubbornly high inflation readings from the consumer-price index, which in April increased 3.4% from a year ago. Hospital prices specifically jumped 7.7% last month from a year ago, the highest increase in any month since October 2010, the Labor Department said Wednesday. ... Hospitals sat out the first waves of inflation that swept through the economy in recent years, though not by choice. Their prices were locked in under contracts with health insurers, for more than a year in some cases. As hospitals have renegotiated prices, inflation has taken hold.