A newly launched HHS Web site allows users to see how much Medicare spends for hospital patients with the 25 most costly conditions and compare Medicare hospital spending by state. Patients covered by Medicare Advantage, however, are not included in the online database, named the CMS Dashboard. Beneficiaries with Medicare Advantage plans account for about 23% of Medicare enrollment.
The Web site compares data several ways, including total Medicare hospital spending by state in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The figures—which also include partial data for 2006 and 2010—include information for roughly 40 million hospital visits and will be updated monthly.
Figures also include spending, by year and state, for an average hospital admission. Another comparison shows the top 25 conditions by spending and the 10 highest spending states for each condition. Other comparisons rank conditions by volume and list the 10 hospitals with the most volume in the 10 highest volume states by condition. Users can also compare Medicare payments by state and break out additional payments for teaching hospitals, low-income patients, the most expensive patients and capital costs.
The data are not risk-adjusted for patients' illnesses, the CMS said.
