CRANSTON – Health care spending in Rhode Island grew by 4.1% between 2018 and 2019, according to a report recently released by the Rhode Island Health Care Cost Trends Steering Committee.
During that time, Rhode Islanders with health insurance coverage spent about $8,949 on health care.
The numbers exceed a goal set by the committee of 3.2%.
During a meeting in late April, the committee pointed to three sectors as top contributors to rising costs.
Hospital outpatient services contributed 33.2%, retail pharmacy rose by 25.4% and professional physician services by 14.8%.
Commercial health insurance registered the steepest growth rate at 4.7%, with Medicaid at 4.1% and Medicare increasing by 1.3%.
“Releasing these data is a significant step forward for Rhode Island and will help us understand what actions payers, providers, state government, and others can take together to make meaningful progress on cost containment,” said committee co-chair Dr. G. Alan Kurose, who is also president and CEO of Coastal Medical.
Working toward health care cost transparency is a “central tenet” of the Rhode Island Health Care Cost Trends Project, said Patrick M. Tigue, Rhode Island’s health insurance commissioner.
“These data show that we still have work to do to lower health care cost growth in order to improve affordability for Rhode Islanders,” he said.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
