title: Predicting hospital accounting costs.
abstract: Two alternative methods to Medicare Cost Reports that provide information about hospital costs more promptly but less accurately are investigated. Both employ utilization data from current-year bills. The first attaches costs to utilization data using cost-charge ratios from the previous year's cost report; the second uses charges from current year's bills. The first method is the more accurate of the two, but even using it, only 40% of hospitals had predicted costs within plus or minus 5% of actual costs. The feasibility and cost of obtaining cost reports from a small, fast-track sample of hospitals should be investigated.
authors: J P
authors: JP
authors: Newhouse
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Cretin
authors: C J
authors: CJ
authors: Witsberger
mesh_terms: D000066:Accounting / Q000379:methods*; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D003625:Data Collection; D004469:Economics, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005544:Forecasting; D005843:Geography; D006742:Hospital Bed Capacity; D006278:Medicare; D010067:Ownership; D011445:Prospective Payment System / Q000191:economics*; D012044:Regression Analysis; D014481:United States