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Research Highlights
Estimates of VA Health Care Costs Developed by VA's Health Economic Resource Center
Taken from the Veterans Health Administration Highlights dated February 8, 2002
VA’s Health Economics Resource Center (HERC) has released comprehensive estimates of VA health care costs for care provided after October 1, 1997. These estimates are based on VA cost data and non-VA measures of relative value.
For inpatient stays, a model of hospital costs incurred in non-VA hospitals by Medicare-eligible veterans was used. For outpatient visits, Medicare payment rates were used as the measure of relative value. The dataset contains one record for each visit in the VA outpatient events file, over 60 million visits per year.
Guides for the use of HERC average cost datasets are now available on HERC’s Web site, which also contains Frequently Asked Questions, useful links, and a portal for submitting help requests to the HERC helpdesk. Visit HERC’s Web site at www.herc.research.med.va.gov or Email HERC at herc@med.va.gov for information on using the HERC files.
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