What’s New in NASHP’s Hospital Cost Calculator?
April 26, 2021 / by Adney Rakotoniaina and Marilyn Bartlett
The National Academy for State Health Policy’s (NASHP) Hospital Cost Calculator uses information from annual Medicare cost reports that are completed by hospitals and submitted to the federal government to provide health care purchasers and regulators with critical information to better understand hospital costs – versus their charges.
Since releasing the calculator last year, NASHP has provided technical assistance to more than a dozen states that have used the calculator to address issues ranging from health system consolidation to the disproportionate amount hospitals charge for care — compared to their actual costs to provide that care.
NASHP made changes to the calculator to capture data on more services and to make it easier for states to uncover and compare hospital bottom lines, including:
- Added metrics to assist with hospital comparisons, including total compensation, overhead compensation, inpatient discharges, and home office and related party costs.
- Expanded capture of Medicare charges, payments, and costs for hospital-based or subcontractor inpatient rehabilitation facility, inpatient psychiatric facility, swing beds, and skilled nursing facility services in both inpatient and outpatient settings.
- Isolated revenue capture for Title V and Title XIX programs from Title XVIII revenues.
- Eliminated separate calculations for Medicare swing bed calculations, including them in general Medicare calculations.
- Simplified the tool’s calculation of a hospital’s “break-even levels” or the point at which hospitals are reimbursed by commercial plans at the rate that covers the hospitals’ cost of providing care without losing money, even when considering the hospital’s potential losses from public payers and the uninsured.
For assistance utilizing the Hospital Cost Calculator, please email hct@oldsite.nashp.org.
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