According to the S&P Healthcare Economic Composite Index,the average per capita cost of health care services covered bycommercial insurance and Medicare programs rose 6.27% over the12-months ending November 2010. This is a deceleration from the+6.68% reported for the 12-months ending in October 2010.

Claim costs associated with hospital and professional servicesfor patients covered under commercial health plans rose 7.79% overthe year ending in November, as measured by the S&P HealthcareEconomic Commercial Index. Medicare claim costs for the sameservices rose at a rate of 3.74% from the previous year, asmeasured by the S&P Healthcare Economic Medicare Index. This isthe lowest annual growth rate for Medicare claims costs since June2007, when it was +3.55%. These two measures saw growthdeceleration versus their October reports of +8.19% and +4.18%,respectively.

The S&P Healthcare Economic Indices estimate the per capitachange in revenues accrued each month by hospital and professionalservices facilities for services provided to patients covered undertraditional Medicare and commercial health insurance programs inthe U.S. The annual growth rates are determined by calculating apercent change of the 12-month moving averages of the monthly indexlevels versus the same month of the prior year.