Finding and Using Healthcare Data – How do you Crosswalk HCUP to the Medicare PPS report?
Researchers may wish to link the HCUP database to Medicare data. Link to details on HCUP. HCUP identifies hospitals with HOSPID while Medicare uses the PPS identifying number. For our purpose, we wanted to link the two so that we could cost-adjust the HCUP charges. First, note that the crosswalk between HCUP and Medicare is not perfect. Each dataset (HCUP, AHA, and Medicare cost report) has a different method for identifying hospitals. In one dataset, a hospital system may be counted as a single entity, whereas in another system, it may be counted as multiple, separate entities. This can lead to discrepancies. Below are the detailed steps involved in crosswalking the data.
