About RAND Hospital Data
We provide a curated subset of variables and synthesize current and historical hospital cost report data from 1996 onwards – all into a single download.
CMS Hospital Cost Reports
All facilities certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are required to submit an annual financial report. These reports are somewhat like tax returns, including basic information on the facility and the services it provides, as well as extensive financial information on revenues, expenses, profits, liabilities, assets, and wages.
CMS maintains data from cost reports in the Healthcare Provider Cost Reporting Information System (HCRIS) and releases a complete snapshot of the data four times a year. CMS cost report data are available for free to the public, but can be difficult to navigate.
CMS cost report data challenges:
- Separate downloads for each federal fiscal year
- Cost reporting periods not consistent across hospitals
- Variables named based on position in the cost report form
- Each report can contain over 200,000 variables
- Files are too large to open in Microsoft Excel or Access
- Available documentation not written for data users
Introducing RAND Hospital Data
RAND Hospital Data is a more user-friendly version of the hospital cost report data released by CMS. We have assembled cost report data for all hospitals from 1996 onwards.
- Standardized time periods: subscribers can download datasets standardized to the calendar year or federal fiscal year
- Panel datasets: all available years of data are included in all files and at various levels of observation for subscribers: hospital, county, core-based statistical area, state, and national
- Key metrics: commonly calculated metrics using CMS cost report variables – operating margins, occupancy, cost-to-charge ratios, etc. – are provided in addition to the raw variables
- Intuitive variable names: variables are identified with an easy-to-understand nomenclature and are accompanied by comprehensive documentation
- Regular updates: the data are updated four times a year
- Outlier correction: data corrected for outliers with subscriber option to download uncorrected data
Registered users can download a sample dataset that contains a subset of approximately 100 variables from the most recently submitted cost report for short-term, acute care and critical access hospitals.
Subscribers can download panel datasets with hospital cost report data from 1996 onwards, with customization options for: (1) Level of Observation (Hospital, CBSA, State); (2) Time Period (Hospital, Calendar, or Federal Fiscal Year); and (3) Outlier Correction.
About RAND
RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.