What hospital inpatient services contributed the most to the 2001-2006 growth in the cost per case?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To demonstrate a refined cost-estimation method that converts detailed charges for inpatient stays into costs at the department level to enable analyses that can unravel the sources of rapid growth in inpatient costs.

Data sources

Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases and Medicare Cost Reports for all community, nonrehabilitation hospitals in nine states that reported detailed charges in 2001 and 2006 (n = 10,280,416 discharges).

Study design

We examined the cost per discharge across all discharges and five subgroups (medical, surgical, congestive heart failure, septicemia, and osteoarthritis).

Data collection/extraction methods

We created cost-to-charge ratios (CCRs) for 13 cost-center or department-level buckets using the

SUBMITTER: Maeda JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3513607 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature