CMS Medicare hospital charge data is now available to the public.
In early May, the Office of Information Products & Data Analytics (OIPDA) released new data on hospital charges, which showed significant variation in average charge from hospital to hospital, including those within the same community, for inpatient services that may be provided in connection with a given inpatient stay. The data, compiled from hospital claims, by CMS, sets out hospital charges for services that may be provided in connection with the top 100 inpatient stays most frequently billed to Medicare by approximately 3,400 hospitals that receive payment for inpatient acute-care services under the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS). These hospitals together constitute 92 percent of all hospital inpatient discharges. The inpatient charge amounts vary widely.
To view the new hospital dataset, please go to: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html.
To read a fact sheet about the Medicare data showing variation in hospital charges, please see: http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=4597.
For more information on HHS efforts to build a health care system that will ensure quality care, please see the fact sheet “Lower Costs, Better Care: Reforming Our Health Care Delivery System,” at http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/factsheet.asp?Counter=4550.
