Earlier this month, CMS released its first annual update to its Medicare inpatient and outpatient hospital charge databases. Specifically, the updated CMS databases include information on 2012 average hospital charges for the 100 most common Medicare inpatient services and 30 most common Medicare outpatient services. The database now includes two years of data, allowing researchers to begin to look at trends. CMS also has released a variety of information on chronic conditions among Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries, including data on prevalence, utilization, and Medicare spending. In addition, the CMS Geographic Variation Dashboards present Medicare FFS per-capita spending at the state and county levels in interactive formats, and a CMS Research Cohort Estimate Tool is intended to help researchers and other stakeholders estimate the number of Medicare beneficiaries with certain demographic profiles or health conditions.