CMS releases Medicare data on hospital and physician utilization

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the third annual release of the Medicare hospital utilization and payment dataand the second annual release of the physician and other supplier utilization and payment data. 

“These data releases will give patients, researchers and providers continued access to information to transform the healthcare delivery system,” said acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt, announcing the releases at the Health Datapalooze conference. “It’s important for consumers, their providers, researchers and other stakeholders to understand the delivery of care and spending under the Medicare program.”

The Medicare hospital utilization and payment data consists of information for 2013 about the average amount a hospital bills for services that may be provided in an inpatient stay or outpatient visit. The hospital data includes payment and utilization information for services that may be provided in connection with the 100 most common Medicare inpatient stays and 30 selected outpatient procedures at over 3,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The top 100 inpatient stays represented in the hospital inpatient data are associated with approximately $62 billion in Medicare payments and over 7 million hospital discharges.

The Medicare Part B physician, practitioner and other supplier utilization and payment data consists of information on services and procedures provided to Medicare beneficiaries by physicians and other healthcare professionals. The data also show payment and submitted charges for those services and procedures by provider. It allows for comparisons by physician, specialty, location, types of medical services and procedures delivered, Medicare payment and submitted charges. The new 2013 dataset has information for over 950,000 distinct healthcare providers who collectively received $90 billion in Medicare payments. 

“Data transparency facilitates a vibrant health data ecosystem, promotes innovation and leads to better informed and more engaged healthcare consumers,” said Niall Brennan, CMS chief data officer and director of the Office of Enterprise and Data Analytics. “CMS will continue to release the hospital and physician data on an annual basis so we can enable smarter decision making about care that is delivered in the healthcare system.”

View a fact sheet on the 2013 hospital charge data and a fact sheet on the 2013 Medicare Part B physician data.