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Hospital Cost Tool and Resources

As health care spending continues to rise — with the largest proportion of those expenditures on hospital services — states and other purchasers are seeking to better understand and address hospitals’ costs.

To support these efforts, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) has developed an interactive Hospital Cost Tool and accompanying resources.

These combined resources analyze a hospital’s annual Medicare Cost Report (MCR) to provide critical data that can inform cost-containment strategies and discussions with hospitals.

Hospital Cost Tool

NASHP’s interactive Hospital Cost Tool provides anyone from policymakers to researchers with insights into how much hospitals spend on patient care services. The tool also shows how those costs relate to both the hospital charges (list prices) and the actual prices paid by health plans.

Use the links below to learn how to explore and understand the revenue, costs, profitability, and break-even points for more than 4,600 hospitals nationwide over 12 years. For states seeking technical assistance, please email hct@nashp.org.

Hospital Cost Calculator

The Hospital Cost Calculator is a downloadable spreadsheet that can be manually completed using a hospital’s annual Medicare cost report (MCR). Once data from an MCR is inserted, the spreadsheet will calculate numerous data points to inform cost-containment discussions with hospitals, including payer mix, cost recovery from Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers, disallowed MCR costs, other income/ expense, and commercial breakeven.

Use the links below to download the calculator (as an Excel workbook), or to learn more about the spreadsheet and how it can inform state cost containment strategies.

Translating Evidence into Policy

For help turning Hospital Cost Tool data into policy, states can find informative resources below. NASHP’s Health System Costs Center also offers Model Legislation and Resources to help states address rising health care costs.



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