A Checklist for Successful Hospital Cost Reporting in the Time of COVID-19

The impacts of pandemic-related cost reporting changes recorded in providers’ cost reports will be pervasive, affecting nearly every aspect of the reported data. In particular, hospital leaders should make sure they understand how to report costs associated with the treatment of COVID-19 patients, costs associated with staffing and other challenges resulting from the pandemic, and costs associated with the various public health initiatives hospitals engaged in during the public health emergency (PHE). How these expenses are reported in hospitals' cost reports today may affect what those hospitals are paid tomorrow.

Hospitals typically use checklists to ensure they complete their cost reports thoroughly and compliantly. If the COVID-19 pandemic and the PHE have taught us anything, however, it’s that change is inevitable, and it can introduce factors that challenge basic assumptions and raise new or different concerns.