Medicare's fee-for-service program paid 4,700 hospitals $178 billion in 2015 for inpatient admissions, outpatient services and non-Medicare uncompensated care costs. Here are 34 statistics on Medicare admissions, costs, margins and charges in 2015 from MedPAC's March 2017 report to Congress.
Inpatient services
1. Number of inpatient admissions: 10 million
2. Total fee-for-service payments: $112 billion
3. Payments per FFS beneficiary: $3,002
4. Inpatient costs per discharge increase from 2014 to 2015: 2.2 percent
5. Inpatient discharges per FFS Part A beneficiary percent change from 2006 to 2015: 19.5 percent decrease
6. Share of total Medicare revenue from inpatient services: 60 percent (down from 71 percent in 2010)
Outpatient services
7. Number of visits for outpatient services: 200 million
8. Total fee-for-service payments: $58 billion
9. Payments per FFS beneficiary: $1,753
10. Outpatient visits per FFS Part B beneficiary percent change from 2006 to 2015: 47.4 percent increase
11. Share of total Medicare revenue from outpatient care: 28 percent (up from 21 percent in 2010)
Uncompensated care
12. Non-Medicare uncompensated care costs: $8 billion
13. Payments per FFS beneficiary for uncompensated care: $202
14. Share of total Medicare revenue from uncompensated care: 4 percent
Hospital margins
15. All hospitals excluding critical access hospitals and Maryland hospitals: -7.1 percent (compared to -4.9 percent in 2010)
16. Urban hospitals: -7.3 percent (compared to -5.2 percent in 2010)
17. Rural hospitals excluding critical access hospitals: -4.9 percent (compared to -2.6 percent in 2010)
18. Rural hospitals including critical access hospitals: -3.2 percent (compared to -1.7 percent in 2010)
19. Nonprofit hospitals: -8.5 percent (compared to -6.3 percent in 2010)
20. For-profit hospitals: -1.3 percent (compared to -0.1 percent in 2010)
21. Major teaching hospitals (hospitals with a high resident-to-bed ratio): -5.2 percent (compared to -1 percent in 2010)
22. Other teaching hospitals: -5.8 percent (compared to -4.6 percent in 2010)
23. Nonteaching hospitals: -9.6 percent (compared to -8 percent in 2010)
24. EBITDA margin excluding critical access hospitals and Maryland hospitals: 10.6 percent (up from 10.4 percent in 2010)
25. Total all-payer margin excluding critical access hospitals: 6.8 percent (up from 6.3 percent in 2010)
26. Operating margin excluding critical access hospitals: 6.4 percent (up from 5.2 percent in 2010)
Hospital charge markups based on MedPAC's analysis of 2014 Medicare claims and cost reports. Here are the cost-to-charge ratios:
27. All markups: 3.2
28. Routine: 1.4
29. Special care: 1.8
30. Supplies/devices: 2.8
31. Drugs: 3.6
32. Operating room: 4.8
33. Lab: 6
34. Radiology: 7.9