FAQs

  1. Will other form sets be added to the website?
    Yes. We anticipate adding the 2540-96 and 2540-10 databases next, followed by 1728-94, 265-94/265-11.
  2. CMS gives away the Medicare Cost Reporting data away free. You can download it from their website in the form of Public Use Files. So, why would you buy our product?
    The CMS Hospital Medicare Cost Report Data is huge and unruly. The data is too large to bring up in Excel. Medicare Cost Reports contain thousands of data elements and there are thousands of providers with several iterations of each Medicare Cost Report. It takes a large database and programming to present the data in a user friendly format. It also takes in depth knowledge of the Medicare Cost Report to accurately present the data. Hopefully, you will find that our product is a much more affordable solution than taking on this project internally. We put the data in a format that you are familiar with. If you prepare or review cost reports you are probably not used to looking at mass amounts of data elements in databases or spreadsheets. CMS has included all of the necessary data elements in the 2552-10 Medicare Cost Report Public Use File to recreate full Medicare Cost Reports. The database has full PDFs of the recreated MCRs available to view or download. Users of HFS MCR software can download a recreated data file(.mcrx) for viewing, editing, applying adjustments, comparing or any other function in the HFS software. Key elements of the Medicare Cost Report Data is presented to you in concise easy to use and understand “Snap Shots”. Several reports have It’s not just HCRIS data. We have started to pull data from different sources and will continue to incorporate other sources in order to give you an organized quick view of all data available.
  3. Re-created Cost Report Differences
    W/S D parts III and IV PSA – In rare situations, the offset amounts was written to the record rather than the net amount. This creates large settlement differences in the re-created .mcrx files. We believe this is a rare condition and are sure that future filings will not have this issue. (We are confident because we were reporting the offset amounts and have changed our system to export net.) E-4 is not included in the database and this causes a significant difference. We believe that this was an early KPMG .hdt error. We are working to confirm the issue and that it has been corrected. In general, there is a delay between when the cost report was filed and when the data is actually released. Instructions and specification changes may have occurred in the interim that may change calculated cost report amounts. We will calculate the cost reports with the version of the software that is being used at the time the reports are processed by our system. We will not re-calculate these reports as new transmittals are introduced in an attempt to keep the cost report as close to the As Submitted report as possible. Some of the initial filings showed the HO State as a number rather than the state abbreviation.
  4. Why is the CMS report count different from the HFS HCRIS report count? 
    The report count on the CMS website references the current set of data CMS has published.  

    However, CMS sometimes deletes or overwrite reports, for example next quarter these number may change slightly.  The HFS HCRIS database keeps all reports in the database, so even if later CMS overwrites a report HCRIS keeps both old and new.  Also if CMS deletes a report from a set, the HFS HCRIS database does not delete it.  The HFS HCRIS database keeps the whole history of reports, it’s not “refreshing” the DB based on latest data, rather it’s always and only appending new reports.

    CMS may decide to remove a report submitted twice by mistake or exact duplicates while HCRIS keeps everything.