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1. Privacy
Protecting your privacy and
identity are important to us. Your e-mail address will only be used within
Compare Charges and its entities. We do not sell or rent e-mail addresses
or other personal information to anyone outside Compare Charges.
Our site uses a Contact us form and an order form for customers to request
information, products, and services.
We collect visitor's contact information (like e-mail address) and method of
payment. Contact information from the order form is used to process orders
and set-up Subscriber access. User payment information is used to bill for
products and services.
If you wish to be removed from our e-mail mailings, please contact us through
our 'Contact us' page.
2. H.I.P.A.A.
To assure patient
confidentiality and to meet patient H.I.P.A.A. privacy and protection
regulations and agreements, codes with 10 or fewer procedures performed by a
provider are not included in any data presented by this site.
3. Medicare codes
DRG (Diagnosis Related
Groups) (inpatient):
DRG code lists include your reimbursement rate calculated using to your DRG
settings and Medicare’s DRG formula.
The DRG formula is available as a pop-up from
the Administration / DRGs page.
OPPS (Outpatient Prospective Payment System) (outpatient):
OPPS code lists include APC, CPT®, and HCPCS codes.
OPPS code lists include your reimbursement rate calculated with the Wage
Adjusted APC formula.
4. Factoring
Factors adjust the specific item or group
of items by multiplying by the factor amount.
A factor of 1.00 does not adjust the item or group.
It is the default.
For example, a factor of 1.10
increases each item or group by 10%.
Similarly, a factor of .90
decreases each item or group by 10%.
‘Factor all’ multiplies each ‘Compare-to’ hospital by the factor you provide.
Factors that impact the same items or groups are included in the calculation.
5. Calculations
Max, min, average, and weighted averages
The maximum (max), minimum (min), average (avg), and weighted averages
(wtAvg) summarize the respective data among the Compare-to hospitals.
The max, min, average, and weighted averages are significantly effective and
efficient tools to help analyze and process the Details report data.
Weighted average
The weighted average (wtAvg) uses each hospital’s charge volume by code to
perform the calculation.
Variances
The weighted average (wtAvg) uses each hospital’s charge volume by code to
perform the calculation.
Volume
The first two ‘Volume’ columns in your Home hospital area and in the Medicare
area estimate your Home hospital annual Medicare volume for the code.
The third volume column, ‘Total volume’, is the sum of all of the Compare-to
hospitals annual Medicare volume for the code.
Charge
The ‘Charge’ is the average of all charges during the year to Medicare for the
code.
In some circumstances, ‘outlier’ charge amounts may have been removed to help
maintain the average’s usefulness.
Annual
Annual = average Charge x annual Volume
6. Data downloads
All of the data from the Details report is available for purchase. See your
subscriber's menu for ordering.
Downloaded data is useful in many ways. A
few examples…
Further manipulate the data and upload it to your charge master.
Base your charge master pricing on your competitors or on other selected
hospitals.
Base your charge master pricing on any of the high, low, average, or weighted average
charges in your market.
7. Other data availability
Beyond the data presented with your subscription, Compare Charges has a
significant database of the nation’s hospital charges.
We can use that database to produce custom data downloads, groupings,
calculations, and reports for you.
Please contact us through the 'Contact us' page, e-mail or phone.
8. Support
Free site support is included and provided with each subscription.
Please contact us through Contact us, e-mail or phone.
While most support is included for free, some support may require additional
charges. For example,
resetting ‘Home’ hospitals (more than once),
additional data, data downloads, and CDM uploads.
9. Specifications
Common to all web sites, operating systems, browsers, monitor settings, and
other variables all contribute to a user's individual viewing experience. | | |
