Product methodology
Cost Report Forensics
Source contract, normalization path, entity-graph join, refresh posture, and publication limits for this Branmoor product.
Status
Pending. This product is pending. The methodology page is published first so the source contract and join path are visible before Branmoor represents the product as live.
Distribution Scope
Nationwide; TN provider finance layer; Nashville hospital cost-report cut
Product Question
Turns Medicare cost reports into diligence-ready operating and financial trajectories.
Primary Sources
- CMS HCRIS cost reports — Provider-reported revenue, expenses, utilization, cost centers, beds, wage index, and ownership fields
- CMS Provider of Services / Care Compare — Facility identity, type, geography, certification, and operating status
- IRS 990 and audited statements where public — Cross-checks nonprofit financial statement line items and related-party reporting
Entity-Graph Join
`ccn`, provider number, `npi`, `irs_ein`, owner entity, county, wage-index area.
Publication Rule
Branmoor does not treat raw public records as the product. A surface is publishable only when the source record is dated, normalized, source-linked, and joined to the relevant Branmoor entity identifiers with enough confidence to state the limits of the result.
Current Methodology Note
Pending methodology. Branmoor will normalize cost-report worksheets into dated provider-year facts, reconcile provider identifiers to the entity graph, compute peer cohorts, and flag fields with worksheet-level completeness and confidence posture.
Limits
Coverage follows the underlying source. Missing state portals, gated APIs, PDF-only filings, suppressed fields, lagged agency refreshes, and entity-name ambiguity can all limit product completeness. Pending products are not marketed as live until those limits are documented on the product surface.