Research Resources: RAND Corporation Launches “Hospital Data Tool”

From RAND:

Medicare-certified hospitals and other institutional providers are required to submit an annual cost report to a Medicare Administrative Contractor. Cost reports contain provider information such as facility characteristics, utilization data, cost and charges by cost center (in total and for Medicare), Medicare settlement data, and financial statement data. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) maintains the cost report data in the Healthcare Provider Cost Reporting Information System (HCRIS).

The RAND Hospital Data tool is an effort to enhance CMS HCRIS data to make them more accessible and useful to a broad audience of academics, analysts, and hospital executives and their consultants. The tool provides users with data sets that are conveniently packaged and documented and that include value-added fields derived from HCRIS data, such as measures of occupancy and profitability. The goal of the tool is to make analytic tasks easier for those who work regularly with the data and to broaden the set of users.

Direct to RAND Hospital Data Tool
Note: Advanced Search and Data Download (for the most recent year) Requires Free Registration. Fee-based Premium Data Program also available.

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