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What is HCUP

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP, pronounced “H-cup”) is a family of health care databases and related software tools and products developed through a Federal State industry partnership and sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. HCUP is based on statewide data collected by individual data organizations across the United States and provided to AHRQ through the HCUP partnership. HCUP would not be possible without statewide data collection projects. HCUP includes the largest collection of longitudinal hospital care data in the United States, encompassing all-payer, discharge-level information.

HCUP data are used for research on hospital utilization, access, charges, quality, and outcomes. The data are used to describe patterns of care for uncommon as well as common diseases; to analyze hospital procedures, including those that are performed infrequently; and to study the care of population sub-groups such as minorities, children, women, and uninsured people. Researchers and policymakers use HCUP data to identify, track, analyze, and compare hospital statistics at the national, regional, and State levels.

VIsit https://hcup-us.ahrq.gov/ to learn more about HCUP.

Data Use Agreement for HCUPnet

Attempts to identify individuals or hospitals subject to federal penalty

Data Use Agreement for HCUPnet
Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP),
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

You are accessing a healthcare data website that provides information on use of hospital care. The AHRQ Confidentiality Statute prohibits the use of AHRQ HCUP data to identify any person (including, but not limited to, patients, physicians, and other health care providers) or establishment (including, but not limited to, hospitals).1

Users of data on the HCUPnet website must agree to the following terms:

  • I will make no attempts to identify individuals, including by the use of vulnerability analysis or penetration testing. In addition, methods that could be used to identify individuals directly or indirectly shall not be disclosed, released, or published.
  • I will make no attempts to identify establishments directly or by inference.
  • I will not use deliberate technical analysis to discover or release information on small numbers of observations ≤10.
  • I will not attempt to link this information with individually identifiable records from any other source.
  • I will not attempt to use this information to contact any persons or establishments in the data for any purpose.

Violations of the AHRQ Confidentiality Statute may be subject to a civil penalty of up to $14,140 under 42 U.S.C. 299c-3(d). Deliberately making a false statement about this or any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of the Federal Government violates 18 U.S.C. § 1001 and is punishable by a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.

Violators of this Agreement may also be subject to penalties under state confidentiality statutes that apply to these data for particular states.

By clicking the agreement below, I acknowledge that I agree to comply with these terms.

1 Section 944(c) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 299c-3(c)).

Note: If you select Do Not Accept, you will be redirected back your previous page or the AHRQ Data Tools home page.