Hospital Compare adds Spending Per Hospital Patient with Medicare Measure

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services added a new measure, Spending per Hospital Patient with Medicare, to its Hospital Compare website, according to AHA News Now.  

According to the Hospital Compare Website, the Spending per Hospital Patient with Medicare measure shows whether Medicare spends more, less or about the same per Medicare patient treated in a specific hospital, compared to how much Medicare spends per patient nationally. This measure includes any Medicare Part A and Part B payments made for services provided to a patient during the 3 days prior to the hospital stay, during the stay, and during the 30 days after discharge from the hospital. 

The website ranks each hospital as spending more than (>1), less than (<1) or about the same (1) as the national average per episode of care for patients treated at a specific hospital. 

(Sources: AHA News Now, AHA News Now, http://ahanews.com, April 20, 2012; Hospital Compare Website, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, Accessed April 25, 2012)