Nation's Hospital Bill Jumped by 7% in 2005 - WSJ.com

Nation's Hospital Bill Jumped by 7% in 2005 - WSJ.com: "A handful of high-cost and high-volume conditions helped drive the national hospital bill up 7% in 2005, to $873 billion, a record high and nearly double 1997 spending adjusted for inflation, a federal agency reported. The report, from the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, analyzed figures from the most recent year available and found in part that triple-digit percentage growth in the amount charged for blood infections, nonspecific chest pain, respiratory failure, back pain and arthritis over the past decade contributed to the increase. . . .The five costliest categories were coronary-artery disease, pregnancy and delivery, newborn-infant care, heart attack and congestive heart failure, followed by pneumonia and arthritis."