title: Adjusting Health Expenditures for Inflation: A Review of Measures for Health Services Research in the United States.
abstract: To provide guidance on selecting the most appropriate price index for adjusting health expenditures or costs for inflation.
  
  
  
  Major price index series produced by federal statistical agencies.
  
  
  
  We compare the key characteristics of each index and develop suggestions on specific indexes to use in many common situations and general guidance in others.
  
  
  
  Price series and methodological documentation were downloaded from federal websites and supplemented with literature scans.
  
  
  
  The gross domestic product implicit price deflator or the overall Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) index is preferable to the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) to adjust for general inflation, in most cases. The Personal Health Care (PHC) index or the PCE health-by-function index is generally preferred to adjust total medical expenditures for inflation. The CPI medical care index is preferred for the adjustment of consumer out-of-pocket expenditures for inflation. A new, experimental disease-specific Medical Care Expenditure Index is now available to adjust payments for disease treatment episodes.
  
  
  
  There is no single gold standard for adjusting health expenditures for inflation. Our discussion of best practices can help researchers select the index best suited to their study.
authors.affiliation: Bureau of Economic Analysis, Washington, DC.
authors.forename: Abe
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.affiliation: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Scott D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Grosse
authors.affiliation: Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
authors.forename: Samuel H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Zuvekas
mesh_terms: D017281:Cost of Illness; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007250:Inflation, Economic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018803:Models, Economic; D014481:United States
keywords: Health care costs; cost-effectiveness; cost-of-illness; expenditures; health care prices; inflation