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Date: Thursday, November 9, 1995	
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: HCFA Press Office (202) 690-6145

HCFA Announces Availability of Data Files
on the Internet

The Health Care Financing Administration announced today that most data files used to develop Medicare hospital payment rates for fiscal year 1996 are available on the Internet for the first time.

These data files have been made available as part of Vice President Gore's National Information Infrastructure initiative to reach the widest possible audience. Only data files too large for electronic data interchange are not included.

Medicare payment rates for hospitals are set prospectively and are adjusted for such factors as complexity of treatment, geographic variations in wages, medical education costs and the higher costs of serving low-income patients.

Data files are now available on the Internet which contain information used in the rate-setting process, such as HCFA's hospital wage index survey, and urban and rural wage indexes. These data files are included in HCFA's public use files category.

The files can be accessed and downloaded from HCFA's World Wide Web location. The official address of HCFA's home page is www.ssa.gov/hcfa/hcfahp2.html.

Users should choose "Statistics, Data Rates and Reports" from the home page main menu to get to the "Reports, Statistical Information and Data Rates" menu. Users should then choose "Public

Use Data Files" to arrive at the "Medicare: Public Use Files and Descriptions" menu. The public use file menu list briefly describes each file, specifying the file name and size. The file size should provide the user with a relative idea of the amount of time it will take to download the file.

An electronic mail address, MEDICARESTATS@cms.hhs.gov, is listed at the end of the public use file menus to allow Internet users to provide HCFA with comments or suggestions.

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