Unlocking Healthcare's Best-Kept Secret: The HCRIS Goldmine
Most people don’t realize the federal government quietly publishes the country’s most valuable hospital data. This is the Healthcare Cost Report Information System (HCRIS). Every year, hospitals submit Medicare cost reports to CMS, packed with details on revenue, costs, staffing, patient volumes, service lines, and more. CMS aggregates all this into HCRIS, covering every hospital nationwide and reaching back decades. On paper, it’s a goldmine for benchmarking, analysis, and strategic decisions.
In reality, HCRIS is massive, messy, and completely unusable in Excel. Even experts rarely use it because it demands SQL skills, deep Medicare knowledge, and hours of manual work. Most decision-makers end up relying on consultants, reimbursement specialists, or outdated surveys and are left guessing about the metrics that actually shape performance and strategy.
Spectral Health was built to fix this gap. After 25 years in hospital finance and as a former Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC), I saw firsthand how limited access to HCRIS holds everyone back. Spectral Health unlocks this data for everyone. It allows anyone to ask plain-English questions and get instant, accurate answers, complete with charts and downloadable files for further analysis.
Wondering how your net revenue per patient day compares to other acute care hospitals in Texas? Just ask. The answer is ready in seconds.
Spectral Health is built on this proven foundation and is now open to everyone. We believe so strongly in the power of this data that we offer a robust free tier, giving you the ability to get instant answers to your most pressing questions.
What You Can Do with Spectral Health
- Answer Critical Business Questions: Instantly query decades of hospital data to inform your strategy.
- Benchmark Performance: Compare your facility’s financial metrics against any hospital or group in the country.
- No Cost, No Commitment: Access the core features of Spectral Health and run a generous number of free queries every month.
Get started for free at https://spectralhealth.ai and unlock the HCRIS goldmine today.
About me:
I’m Eric Hendrickson, co-founder of Spectral Health. For 25 years, I have worked in hospital finance and Medicare reimbursement. I have filed hundreds of cost reports, advised hospital systems, and worked as a Recovery Audit Contractor for insurance payers. Today, I direct reimbursement and revenue cycle for a rehab hospital system, so I understand how critical fast, accurate data is for making decisions. Spectral Health is the tool I spent my career searching for, and I know I am not alone.
If you work in administration, reimbursement, finance, M&A, consulting, investment, journalism, or if you’re simply curious how hospitals really operate, let’s connect. I frequently post insights and use cases powered by Spectral Health.