DESCRIPTION:

HIP is an interactive visualization of inpatient pricing data provided by CMS. The goal of the software is to provide insights into the pricing structure and coverage of inpatient care for the 100 most common DRGS.

This is accomplished by a simple and effective design consisting of an interactive map of the USA with locations of all providers programmatically mapped by zip code. Each provider location is shaded with a color scale of white to red, with red meaning all DRGs are covered at the provider location and white meaning none. Pricing is analyzed by generating a visual graph that depicts the breakdown of average payments and covered charges for all DRGs. The break down can be filtered by provider and state. By default the national averages are shown.

Interaction is by mouse-hovering. Contextual awareness is build into to all components, so when mouse hover over an item all components automatically update to reflect the selected item.

By examining the the visuals and hovering over providers and states the user is able to distill the data and determine:

• The most affordable treatment centers
• Regional inpatient care availability for the 100 DRGs
• Inpatient care resource concentration
• Cost disparities of DRGs (nationally and state-wise)
• and many more.

This visualization can be useful not only to the public but also for policy makers who determine allocation of health care resources. For example, the regional concentration of medical centers can be a good data point to couple with population density for determining how health resource usage.

DATA SOURCE:

Medicare Provider Charge Data: Inpatient (provided by CMS)

INPUT CONCEPTS:

Use your mouse to hover over states, and medical centers in the map to view pricing data per DRG. Hovering over a DRG will show the provider locations where the DRG is covered and the national totals and averages.

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