In the nation’s first full year after widespread availability of safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccines to combat COVID-19, U.S. health spending on physician services grew at just a 2.6% rate in 2022. That was down from 7% in 2020, 4.8% in 2021 and 3.9% in the prepandemic year of 2019.

That slowdown was “due to both slower growth in prices and utilization of services,” according to an AMA Policy Research Perspectives report. The sluggish growth in physician spending pales in comparison to the continued growth in spending on prescription drugs, which saw 8.4% growth in 2022.

Moreover, even as the rate of physician growth slowed, the report concludes that “the big picture measures for 2022 suggest that U.S. health spending is back to similar growth rates as before the pandemic.”

My latest for the AMA. Read the whole shebang.