Medicare Cost Reports: Revised Forms and Downloadable Data

CMS updated several Medicare cost report forms. As a result, during the year of the transition and up to one year after, the facility will have two separate data downloads, one that includes all the data collected under the old form and another with the data collected under the new form.

• Hospitals began using a revised cost report form, 2552-10, for cost reports with fiscal year begin dates on or after May 1, 2010.  
• Skilled Nursing Facilities began using revised cost report form, 2540-10, for cost reports with fiscal year begin dates on or after December 1, 2010.
• Renal Dialysis Facilities began using revised cost report form, 265-11, for cost reports with fiscal year end dates on or after January 1, 2011.
• Hospices began using revised cost report forms, 1984-14, for cost reports with fiscal year [end?] dates on or after October 1, 2014.

The cost report data collected using the revised form will be in a separate download from the data collected on the previous form because the worksheets, lines, and columns are different. During the Federal Fiscal Year of the transition and possibly one year after, cost report users will need to download two sets of data in order to obtain the complete set of cost reports submitted for a Federal Fiscal Year.

CMS supplies a "crosswalk" file in each facility cost report Documentation downloads.

• Hospital 2552-10 form
• Skilled Nursing Facility 2540-10 form
• Renal Facility 265-1011 form
• Hospice 1984-2014 form

The crosswalk lists all of the variables found on the old form and the equivalent variable on the revised form. If a variable doesn’t appear in the “crosswalk” file, that means that the variable does not have an equivalent.