Cost weighted episodes of care provide a better means of comparing the cost of admitted patient services across hospitals than a simple count of episodes of care.

This is because a simple count of the number of patients seen at hospitals fails to recognise that different Hospitals can be treating quite different mixes of patients in terms of the nature of their illnesses and the complexity and cost of their treatments.

Cost weights are only allocated to acute separations (including qualified newborns). National Hospital Cost Data Collection (NHCDC) public sector estimated cost weights (2006/07) have been assigned to these acute seperations.