Claims Data: The Benefits Add Up
Our Medicare claims-based data delivers the business intelligence you need for the home health agencies and hospices.
More accurate and more comprehensive than data from other sources, our Medicare claims-based reports give you the clear picture you need for financial, planning, operations, sales and marketing decisions in the competitive home health and hospice arenas.
| Benefit | HMR’s Claims-based Data | Cost Report Data | Benchmarking Firm Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | Yes | ||
| County Level Data | Yes | ||
| Consistency | Yes | ||
| Rich Data | Yes | Yes | |
| More Realistic | Yes | ||
| Breadth of Sample | Yes | ||
| Depth of Sample | Yes | ||
| Lower Cost | Yes | Yes | |
| Report Lag Time | Yes | ||
| Data Elements | Yes | ||
| Agency or Hospice Specific Cost Data | Yes | Yes |
If you have experienced the limitations of Medicare cost-based data reports or reports issued by national benchmarking firms, you will appreciate the power of Healthcare Market Resources claims-based data.
Accuracy
Claims data must be highly accurate because Medicare reimbursements are based on these claims. Cost reports are known to have inaccuracies because of the laxness and carelessness of many filers. Thus, cost reports are subject to human error and the discretion of the cost report preparer.
County Level Data
Only HMR?s claims-based reports drill down to the county level for all states in both the home health and hospice industries.
Consistency
Claims data allows for a more consistent comparison between agencies because all data is for the same calendar year. Cost reports are based on the fiscal year of the agency or hospice fiscal year which is inconsistent.
Rich Data
Claims-based data has most of the indicators that cost reports have, and also includes information on demographics, referral source behavior, HHRG codes, episode-specific visit detail, and discharge disposition.
More Realistic
HMR uses final claims data, while the national benchmarking firms often use initial claims data. This is important with some key metrics, such as case weight.
Breadth of Sample
The largest of the national benchmarking firms has no more than 400-500 home health agencies in their database. HMR data includes all 8,000 home health agencies nationwide. HMR has a similar advantage in the hospice market with nearly 3,000 agencies included versus only 1,000 for other data providers.
Depth of Sample
The national benchmarking firms only provide regional coverage with their data. HMR includes 100 percent of all markets nationwide.
Less Expensive
The entry price for national benchmarking firms is $2,500 per year. Value-priced HMR reports cost a fraction of that and provide an excellent return on investment.
Report Lag Time
National benchmarking data is released quarterly with a two to three month lag time. Claims data is released annually.
Data Elements
Compared with claims-based data, national benchmarking firms provide more data points for both the home health and hospice industries. Their service, however, is more developed in the home health market, where they use the electronic data collection tool OASIS. There is no electronic data collection tool for benchmark reported data in the hospice market, which introduces the inconsistencies that come with self-reporting.
Agency or Hospice Specific Data
Unlike the Medicare cost-based data, Medicare claims-based data does not have agency or hospice specific cost information. However, because of the standards by which this information is submitted, there is no assurance of data consistency among filers except at the organization level.