This new infographic illustrates how the cost estimating method used by more than half of US hospitals can lead to faulty decision making. According to newly released Objective Health research, more than 50% of US hospitals use cost-to-charge ratios as a primary cost estimation method, mainly because true procedural cost accounting is viewed as prohibitively expensive. However, on average, 300-bed hospitals that use these cost-to-charge ratios overestimate the profitability of orthopedic surgery by $1.2 million per year.