Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced "H-Cup") is a family of healthcare databases and related software tools and products from the United States that is developed through a Federal-State-Industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

HCUP provides access to healthcare databases for research and policy analysis, as well as tools and products to enhance the capabilities of the data. HCUP databases combine the data collection efforts of State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the Federal Government to create a national information resource of patient-level healthcare data. State organizations that provide data to HCUP are called Partners. HCUP includes multiyear hospital administrative (inpatient, outpatient, and emergency department) data in the United States, with all-payer, encounter-level information beginning in 1988. These databases enable research on health and policy issues at the national, State, and local levels, including cost and quality of health services, medical practice patterns, access to healthcare, and outcomes of treatments. AHRQ has also developed a set of software tools to be used when evaluating hospital data. These software tools can be used with the HCUP databases and with other administrative databases. HCUP’s Supplemental Files are only for use with HCUP databases. HCUP databases have been used in various studies on a number of topics, such as breast cancer, depression, and multimorbidity, incidence and cost of injuries, role of socioeconomic status in patients leaving against medical advice, multiple chronic conditions and disparities in readmissions, and hospitalization costs for cystic fibrosis.

The HCUP User Support website is the main repository of information for HCUP. It is designed to answer HCUP-related questions; provide detailed information on HCUP databases, tools, and products; and offer technical assistance to HCUP users. HCUP’s tools, publications, documentation, news, services, HCUP Fast Stats, and HCUPnet (the online data query system) may all be accessed through HCUP-US. HCUP-US is located at https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov.

HCUP has developed an interactive online course that provides an overview of the features, capabilities, and potential uses of HCUP. The course is modular, so users can either move through the entire course or access the resources in which they are most interested. The On-line HCUP Overview Course (https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/overviewcourse.jsp) can work both as an introduction to HCUP data and tools and a refresher for established users.

The HCUP Online Tutorial Series (https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/tech_assist/tutorials.jsp) is a set of interactive training courses that provide HCUP data users with information about HCUP data and tools, and training on technical methods for conducting research with HCUP data. The online courses are modular, so users can move through an entire course or access the sections in which they are most interested. Topics include loading and checking HCUP data, understanding HCUP’s sampling design, calculating standard errors, producing national estimates, conducting multiyear analysis, and using the Nationwide Readmissions Database (NRD).

HCUP databases bring together data from State data organizations, hospital associations, private data organizations, and the Federal Government to create an information resource of patient-level healthcare data. HCUP’s databases (https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/databases.jsp) date back to 1988 data files. The databases contain encounter-level information for all payers compiled in a uniform format with privacy protections in place. Researchers and policymakers can use the records to identify, track, and analyze national trends in healthcare use, access, charges, quality, and outcomes. HCUP databases are released approximately 6 to 18 months after the end of a given calendar year, with State databases available earlier than the national or nationwide datasets. Currently, there are eight types of HCUP databases: four with national- and regional-level data and three with State- and local-level data.

HCUP provides a number of tools and software programs that can be applied to HCUP and other similar administrative databases.

HCUPnet (https://hcupnet.ahrq.gov/) is an online query system that provides healthcare statistics and information from the HCUP national (NIS, NEDS, KID, and NRD) and State (SID, SASD, and SEDD) databases for those States that have agreed to participate. HCUPnet can be used for identifying, tracking, analyzing, and comparing statistics on hospital inpatient stays, emergency care, and ambulatory surgery, as well as obtaining measures of quality-based information from the AHRQ Quality Indicators. Select statistics are available at a national- and county-level. HCUPnet can also be used for trend analysis with healthcare data available from 1993 forward. HCUPnet also includes a feature called hospital readmissions that provides users with some statistics on hospital readmissions within 7 and 30 days of hospital discharge.