Beginning in 1996, Arizona included charges for professional fees and patient convenience items in its total charges. Any charges for professional fees and convenience items were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make Arizona total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states.

Due to an error in HCUP processing in 1996, some types of professional fees were not subtracted from total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X). The types of professional fees that were not subtracted include hospital visits, consultations, private duty nurses, EKGs, EEGs, and medical social services. Charges for these services were coded on 24% of the 1996 discharges, with a mean charge of $216 and a range from $1 to $5,718. Total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) can be corrected by subtracting the detail charge, CHG61. No other years need correction.

Beginning in 1997, all reported professional fees and patient convenience items were subtracted from total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X).

In 1996 only, total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) can be corrected by subtracting the detail charge, CHG61. No other years need correction.

Total charges in the 2008 Arkansas SID are not rounded to the nearest dollar.

California supplied total charges only for the last 365 days of the stay for stays of more than one year (365 days). If the supplied length of stay was greater than 365 days, cleaned total charges, TOTCHG, was set to missing (.) and uncleaned total charges, TOTCHG_X, retained the supplied total charge. Due to an error in HCUP processing, cleaned total charges, TOTCHG, were not set to missing in the 1998-1999 HCUP files.

Prior to 2022, some hospitals in California (including all Kaiser and Shriner hospitals) were exempted from reporting total charges. For those hospitals, TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X were missing (.).

Source documentation indicated that hospital-based physician fees were not included in the reported total charges.

No Charges

The source reported total charges with the value of 1 for discharges with no charges ($0). These records include live donors and courtesy or research patients. Values of 1 were verified with the hospital by the source.

Prior to 1995, total charges were set to missing (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X = .) for these records during HCUP processing. Beginning in 1995, only TOTCHG was set to missing (.) [invalid (.A) for 2008-2012 data] and TOTCHG_X retained the value of 1. Due to an error in HCUP processing, cleaned total charges, TOTCHG, were not set to missing in the 1998-1999 HCUP files.

According to Colorado, hospital based physician fees are excluded from total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X).

For data years 2019-2021, total charges were set to missing for several hospitals due to substantially high mean total charges compared to previous years. TOTCHG_X retains the original values.

Beginning in 1993, Iowa includes professional fees in its total charges if the hospital combines hospital and professional bills. From 1993 to 2002, professional fees were subtracted from total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) during HCUP processing to make Iowa total charges comparable to data from other states. Due to an error in processing the inpatient data in 2003-2004, professional fees were NOT subtracted from the total charges. Users can correct this by subtracting non-covered charges (CHG16) and professional fees (CHG17) from the total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X). Beginning in 2005, professional fees and non-covered items are excluded from the total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X).

Prior to 1993, it was optional for hospitals to report total charges to the hospital association:

• The availability of total charges varies by hospital.
• Some hospitals have missing (.) total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) on a large percentage of records.

It was optional for hospitals to provide total charges to the hospital association. Approximately 5% to 25% of the discharges are missing total charges.

Some hospitals report total charges of $1.00 for all discharges. For 1993-1994, the $1.00 charges are included in the HCUP data. Beginning with 1995, total charges of $1.00 in the Kansas inpatient data were set to missing (.).

Some smaller hospitals have data systems that allow a maximum of 5 digits for total charges. For these hospitals, total charges of $100,000 or greater are coded as $99,999.

Due to an error in 1994 HCUP processing, TOTCHG values of "invalid" (.A) were recoded to TOTCHG values of "missing" (.).

Total charges in the 2008 Maryland SID are not rounded to the nearest dollar.

Beginning in 2006, Maryland stopped providing total charges. This data element is created based on charges associated with revenue code 0001 during the HCUP data processing.

Maryland excluded the following from total charges:

• Physician charges and
• Charges not regulated by the Health Services Cost Review Commission (for example, telephone service, television charges or private duty nursing charges).

Prior to 1993, Massachusetts included professional fees in its detailed and total charges, if these were included by the hospital. Hospitals are allowed, but not required, to report these professional fees in the charge fields. Individual facilities decide which professional fees are included and where. There is no way to determine which hospitals did or did not include professional fees.

From 1988 to 1993, total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) are the sum of detailed charges, excluding the "unknown revenue center" charge (CHG43).

Beginning in 1994, an "unknown revenue center" charge was not included in the detailed charges. Total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) equal the sum of all supplied detailed charges.

In 2006, four Michigan hospitals submitted TOTCHG_X with implied decimals. The problem begins in March for one hospital and in July for the other three facilities. During processing we fixed the problem data for both TOTCHG_X and TOTCHG.

Charges for processional fees and patient convenience items were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make Mississippi total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states.

Prior to 2007, the total charges for Nevada are the charges reported for UB-92 revenue center "0001". Beginning in 2007, the total charges were the charges reported for UB-04 revenue center "0001". Fewer than 1% of discharges include professional fees (revenue codes, 096x, 097x and 098x) in the total charge field. Prior to 2006, professional fees were subtracted from the total charges. Beginning in 2006, professional fees were included in TOTCHG.

Starting in data year 2015, total charge will be nulled for all records for a hospital in the SID if median total charge for the hospital is greater than $100,000.

Starting in data year 2013, the sum of the detail charges (REVCHGn) is often less than the total charges (TOTCHG). The HCUP Partner organization in New Mexico only collects information on a maximum of 22 revenue center codes, so the information on detailed charges may be truncated.

The original New Mexico inpatient file contained outpatient records from HOSPID=35020. During the creation of the 2011 New Mexico SID these outpatient records, identified by a length of stay of 0 days, were excluded. This approach also eliminated any inpatient discharges with same day stays for this hospital. Any analysis using the 2011 New Mexico SID should be aware that this hospital is missing information on same day stays.

For the 1988-1993 HCUP files, New York supplied their Master File which consists of Discharge Data Abstracts (DDA) matched to Uniform Billing Forms (UBF) for inpatient stays. Information on total charges is included in the UBF part of the record. Due to an administrative change in the collection of billing records for 1989, a large percentage of the DDAs could not be matched to a UBF. When there was no match, charge information is missing. The match rate improves over time and stabilizes after 1991. The percentage of DDA records that have a matching UBF record in the Master File is as follows:

Beginning in the 1994 data, hospitals submitted discharge records to New York in a new format, using Universal Data Set (UDS) specifications. This format combines the old UBF and DDA data into a single submission record.

Adjustment to Charges for Interim Bills

• For 1988-1993, when the length of stay from the Discharge Data Abstract did not equal the length of the billing period from the Uniform Billing Form, total charges (TOTCHG) were set to missing (.) because this billing information pertained only to the billing period, not the complete inpatient stay. However, TOTCHG_X contains the original value from the billing record.
• Beginning in 1994, billing dates were not reported by New York and the adjustment to charge details (CHGn, RATEn, UNITn, REVCDn) was not made.

Kaiser hospitals are exempt from reporting total charges. As a result, TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X are missing (.) for Kaiser Hospitals in Oregon.

Beginning in the 1995 data, some hospitals did not report total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) on charity bills since there are no charges to the patient.

Charges for patient convenience items were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make Rhode Island total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states.

Beginning in 1996, professional fees and charges for patient convenience items were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make South Carolina total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states.

Prior to 1996, only professional fees were subtracted from the reported total charges because the source did not supply an itemized charge for patient convenience items.

In 2006, total charges were not included on South Carolina SASD or SEDD because of a problem with a major data vendor in the state.

Charges for professional fees (detail charge CHG16), professional component charges (detail charge CHG23), and non-covered charges (detail charge CHG15) were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make South Dakota total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states.

Beginning in 2002, professional fees were subtracted from the reported total charges during HCUP processing to make Utah total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X) comparable to data from other states. Utah indicates that for the majority of the discharges, the reported total charge includes professional fees. Utah reports the total charge for the UB-92 revenue code "001" if the hospital provides individual revenue codes to the data organization; otherwise the total charge is the hospital-reported total. For the hospitals that do not provide individual revenue codes, Utah does not have any means of determining whether or not professional charges are included. Prior to 2002, professional fees were not subtracted from the total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X). To make the total charges comparable to data from other states, professional fees (CHG2) should be subtracted from total charges (TOTCHG and TOTCHG_X).

Total charges in the 2008 West Virginia SID are not rounded to the nearest dollar.

West Virginia has rate setting. The data source confirms that the all covered charges are included in the total charge (TOTCHG).

Prior to 2006, Wisconsin may have included professional fees and convenience items in its total charges. Hospitals are instructed to remove these fees from total charges, but some hospitals do not subtract them and others have had difficulties with their accounting software. There is no way to determine which hospitals did or did not include these items.

Hospitals are not required to report total charges for stays over 100 days.

An error during HCUP processing of 1993 discharges caused negative values of total charges (TOTCHG) to be set to missing (.) instead of invalid (.A). For other years, negative values of TOTCHG were processed correctly.