The 10 5-star hospitals with the tightest budgets

Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass., has the tightest budget of any 5-star hospital in the nation, according to data from Sage Transparency. It is one of 429 hospitals nationwide that won the CMS distinction, based on five quality categories.

Sage Transparency, which was launched by the Employers' Forum of Indiana, lists a hospital's total facility cost (the average amount paid for its services, weighted by volume of claims, as a percentage of what Medicare would have paid) and its breakeven point, shown as the average amount a hospital needs to be paid for its services, as a percentage of what Medicare would pay, to end up with no profit and no loss.

The difference between the two figures — what the hospital is paid versus its breakeven price — represents its relative profitability.

Arizona and Oklahoma are each home to two of the hospitals on this list.

Note: Total facility cost is based on 2018-2020 data. Breakeven points were determined by the National Academy for State Health Policy through an analysis of each hospital's 2019 Medicare Cost Reports. As newer data becomes available, these figures will be updated.

*as a percent of what Medicare would reimburse for the hospital's cumulative service output