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HCHospitalCostData

Updated April 2026

Long-term

4 long-term report a Medicare total-payment average of $14,162, with an average CMS Hospital Compare star rating of 0.0. Under the HospitalCostData Value Score the cohort runs 0% A and 0% F.

Long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) serve medically complex patients requiring extended inpatient stays — typically over 25 days. 4 appear in CMS files. They run on a separate Medicare payment system from acute-care hospitals.

LTCH quality measures focus on ventilator weaning, pressure-ulcer rates, and infection rates — a measure set built for medically complex inpatient care over extended stays.

About Long-term

Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs) treat medically complex patients with average stays over 25 days, typically transferred from acute hospitals for prolonged ventilator weaning, complex wound care, or multi-system management. They are reimbursed under LTCH PPS.

Hospital type is one of the most important contextual filters for any Medicare cost comparison because the underlying payment system varies. Acute-care hospitals are paid under IPPS DRG weights; rehabilitation, psychiatric, long-term-care, and children's facilities each operate under different CMS prospective payment systems. The long-term cohort tracked here is small — 4 facilities — so individual hospital characteristics weigh heavily in the averages.

Cost Picture for Long-term

Average payments for long-term runs modestly below the national Medicare payment baseline, about 11% under the national average. Below-average payments often reflect a mix of competitive local markets, lower wage indexes, or a less complex case mix.

Average payments alone do not capture the patient experience. For most patients, the relevant figures are the negotiated commercial rate or cash-pay rate published in each hospital's machine-readable file under the CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Medicare data tells the federal-payer story; commercial rates can run materially higher.

Quality Distribution Within Long-term

CMS Hospital Compare measures are not uniformly applicable across hospital types. Acute-care facilities report the full set of mortality, readmission, and patient-experience measures; specialty hospitals (children's, psychiatric, rehab, LTCH) report a narrower set. The cohort average star rating of 0.0 should be read with that caveat.

For deeper review, the CMS Care Compare site publishes hospital-specific measure detail. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators and Inpatient Quality Indicators feed many of the underlying measures and are useful for comparing acute-care facilities.

All Long-term

#HospitalGrade
1Intensive Specialty Hospital
Shreveport, LA
B
2Allegiance Specialty Hospital Of Greenville
Greenville, MS
C
3Silver Lake Hospital Ltach
Newark, NJ
C
4Sage Specialty Hospital
Denham Springs, LA
C

Frequently Asked Questions

What are long-term?

Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs) treat medically complex patients with average stays over 25 days, typically transferred from acute hospitals for prolonged ventilator weaning, complex wound care, or multi-system management. They are reimbursed under LTCH PPS.

How many long-term are in this cohort?

4 Medicare-participating long-term are tracked in the current dataset. The long-term cohort tracked here is small — 4 facilities — so individual hospital characteristics weigh heavily in the averages.

What does long-term reimbursement look like under Medicare?

Average Medicare total payment across the cohort is $14,162. Average payments for long-term runs modestly below the national Medicare payment baseline, about 11% under the national average. Below-average payments often reflect a mix of competitive local markets, lower wage indexes, or a less complex case mix.

Are quality measures comparable across hospital types?

Not always. CMS Hospital Compare measures are tuned to general acute-care hospitals; specialty categories (children's, psychiatric, rehabilitation, long-term care) report different measure sets. Average CMS star rating in this cohort is 0.0, but direct cross-type comparisons should be made carefully.

Where does the hospital-type classification come from?

Hospital type is reported during Medicare certification and published in the CMS Provider of Services file and on Care Compare. We use the CMS-reported value verbatim.

See the methodology page for hospital-type sourcing and CMS payment-system context.

Sources & Citations

  • CMS Medicare Inpatient Hospital Payments (IPPS). DRG-level average covered charges, total payments, and Medicare payments per facility. data.cms.gov
  • CMS Hospital Compare (Care Compare). Star ratings, mortality, readmission, safety-of-care, and patient-experience measures. medicare.gov/care-compare
  • CMS Hospital Price Transparency Rule. Standard charge files required from every Medicare-participating hospital. cms.gov/hospital-price-transparency
  • Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). National benchmarks, quality indicators, and clinical context for hospital outcome measures. ahrq.gov

Dataset last refreshed: April 2026. Underlying CMS files are public domain. Suggested citation: “HospitalCostData, hospitalcostdata.com, accessed May 24, 2026.”

This page is informational only and does not constitute medical, legal, or financial advice. Care decisions should be made with a licensed physician.

Source: CMS Hospital Price Transparency, 2026.