Since the release of HCT 1.0, state regulators, employer health care purchasers, and others have used these data to:

• Address health care consolidation
• Inform reimbursement rate negotiations
• Better understand hospital community benefit spending
• Contribute to broader transparency efforts
• And more

While states and their partners have made progress in developing policies that address hospital/ health system costs, they still face many obstacles. For example, some hospitals are not complying with the federal price transparency rules, as evidenced by monetary penalties and warning letters issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Colorado’s prohibition on medical debt collection by non-compliant hospitals. To better understand hospitals’/ health systems’ costs, more transparency is clearly needed.

To help policymakers overcome such obstacles to evidence-informed policy development, NASHP is excited to share an updated version of the tool: HCT 2.0. In addition to including more recent data than was previously available, HCT 2.0 offers new data such as hospital-level COVID-19 provider relief funding. Users can view the chart below for a quick understanding of how HCT 1.0 and HCT 2.0 differ.

Additionally, NASHP has made other refinements to the tool. For example, improved accuracy in excluding outliers/ reporting errors, calculating net charity care which includes charity care grants, and assigning appropriate Medicare costs for organ acquisition.

As states increasingly utilize Hospital Cost Tool data to inform policy, NASHP offers supplemental resources explaining the tool’s calculations and outputs, as well as model legislation addressing hospital costs. Users with HCT-related inquiries can view NASHP’s Q&A or email HCT@nashp.org, if needed.