HCUP Facts & Figures: Statistics on Hospital-Based Care in the United States, 2006

August 2008 The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality provides targeted analysis of important trends organized around high-interest topics hospital and discharge characteristics, diagnoses, procedures, costs, and charges. For this report, H-CUP focused on hospitalizations related to four of the priority health conditions designated by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its report, Priority Areas for National Action: Transforming Health Care Quality; these are childbirth, depression, cancer, and asthma. H-CUP also tracked statistics for arthritis because it frequently affects individuals covered by government programs . . .