October 17, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Producer prices for health care services in 1999

Prices increased by 4.0 percent in both the home health care services industry and the skilled and intermediate care facilities industry between December 1998 and December 1999—these price rises were the biggest among the measured health care service industries.

[Chart data—TXT]

At the other end of the spectrum, prices fell by 0.8 percent in the medical laboratories industry in 1999 and rose only 0.9 percent at psychiatric hospitals. In between were general medical and surgical hospitals (1.8 percent), offices of physicians (2.1 percent), and specialty hospitals, except psychiatric (2.7 percent).

These data are a product of the BLS Producer Price Index program. Learn more in "Rising producer prices in 1999 dominated by energy goods," by Eleni Xenofondos and William F. Snyders, Monthly Labor Review, August 2000.