Understanding Hospital Costs
Hospital Cost Tool
The National Academy for State Health Policy’s Hospital Cost Tool helps purchasers and regulators better assess hospitals’ costs, their public and commercial payer mix, their cost recovery from Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers, and more. The tool uses data from a hospital’s annual Medicare cost report (MCR) to analyze to what extent its payments cover its reported patient care costs.
The tool also calculates the amount commercial payers would need to pay to cover their patients’ hospital costs and any balance from government program payments, unallocated MCR operating costs, disallowed MCR costs, and hospital’s other income/other expense. The tool gives states, employers, and other purchasers of hospital care critical data to inform their cost-containment discussions with hospitals.
Hospital Cost Tool, April 2021.
NASHP Blog: What’s New in NASHP’s Updated Hospital Cost Tool?, April 2021.
Q&A: What States Can Learn from NASHP’s Hospital Cost Tool, January 2021.
NASHP Blog: New Hospital Cost Tool Informs State Cost-Containment Strategies, September 2020.
NASHP Blog: Why Compare What Employers Pay to What Medicare Pays?, September 2020.
For individuals living with complex, often chronic conditions, and their families, palliative care can provide relief from symptoms, improve satisfaction and outcomes, and help address critical mental and spiritual needs during difficult times. Now more than ever, there is growing recognition of the importance of palliative care services for individuals with serious illness, such as advance care planning, pain and symptom management, care coordination, and team-based, multi-disciplinary support. These services can help patients and families cope with the symptoms and stressors of disease, better anticipate and avoid crises, and reduce unnecessary and/or unwanted care. While this model is grounded in evidence that demonstrates improved quality of life, better outcomes, and reduced cost for patients, only a fraction of individuals who could benefit from palliative care receive it. 
