The MSPB Clinician measure assesses the risk-adjusted cost to Medicare for services performed as a result of a clinician's care for a patient's inpatient hospital stay during the period 3 days prior to a hospital stay (also known as the "index admission" for the episode) through 30 days after discharge. The measure excludes costs from a defined list of services that are unlikely to be influenced by the clinician's care decisions and are thus considered unrelated to the index admission. In all supplemental documentation, the term "cost" generally means the standardized Medicare allowed amount.