Hospital Cost Containment Act

Hospital Cost Containment Act - Title I: Transitional Hospital Cost Constraint Provisions - States that it is the purpose of the program established by this title to constrain the rate of increases in total acute care hospital inpatient costs. Excludes from the limitations established by this Act any State which keeps its cost increases below the national average. States that the increase in total revenue which a hospital may receive in any accounting year in the form of: (1) reimbursement paid under the Medicare and Medicaid programs and by cost payers for inpatient services; and (2) charges imposed upon other persons for inpatient services may not, on a per admission basis, exceed the average inpatient reimbursement due or inpatient charges imposed per inpatient admission in the base period by more than the percentage allowed under this Act.

Sets forth formulas by which the limits of the increase in total revenue may be computed. Bases the inpatient hospital revenue increase limit on increase in the gross national product deflator.

Excepts from such limits hospitals which are experiencing substantially higher costs as a result of extraordinary changes in patient loads or major changes in facilities and services.

Directs the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare to promulgate inpatient hospital revenue increase limits annually.

Directs the Secretary to promulgate a formula for adjusting such revenue increase limits based on the number of admissions during a 12-month accounting period.

Authorizes the Secretary to grant exceptions to the revenue increase limit during periods in which the excepted hospitals meet specified criteria. Permits any hospital which is dissatisfied with a determination of the Secretary to obtain a hearing before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board, if the amount in controversy is $25,000 or more. Directs the Secretary to appoint five additional members more, grant an exception, to obtain a hearing before the Provider Reimbursement Review Board to such Board for the purposes of reviewing appeals under this title.

Prohibits, under the Social Security Act, the payment of hospital costs in excess of the limits established pursuant to this Act. Prohibits the receipt of sums by any hospital, or payment of sums by any cost payer for inpatient hospital services on a cost basis in excess of applicable limits. Subjects hospitals or cost payers in violation of these prohibitions to: (1) a Federal excise tax established by this Act; and (2) exclusion from participation in any of the programs established under the Medicaid, Medicare, or Maternal and Child Health Services programs of the Social Security Act.

Allows the Secretary to exclude from cost containment provisions: (1) hospitals meeting specified criteria located in State at the request of the Governor of such State: and (2) hospitals engaged in certain experiments on demonstrations authorized by the Social Security Act.

Requires every hospital to submit semiannually to the appropriate health system agency its average semiprivate room rate and the charges for the ten other representative services most important for purposes of comparing hospitals.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to impose an excise tax on payments received for inpatient hospital services in excess of the inpatient hospital revenue increase limit.

Title II: Limitation on Hospital Capital Expenditures - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to promulgate: (1) an annual hospital capital expenditure limit; (2) a national ceiling for the supply of hospital beds; and (3) a national standard for the rate of occupancy of hospital beds.

Sets forth the criteria to be considered by State health planning agencies when considering applications for certificates of need submitted by health facilities.