Abstract Background Financial incentives represent a potential mechanism to encourage infection prevention by hospitals. In order to characterize the place of financial incentives, we investigated resource utilization and cost associated with hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and assessed the relative financial burden for hospital and insurer according to reimbursement policies. Methods We conducted a prospective matched case-control study over 18 months in a tertiary university medical center. Patients with central-line associated blood-stream infections (CLABSI), Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) or surgical site infections (SSI) were each matched to three control patients. Resource utilization, costs and reimbursement (per diem for CLABSI and CDI, diagnosis related group (DRG) reimbursement for SSI) were compared between patients and controls, from both the hospital and insurer perspective. Results HAIs were associated with increased resource consumption (more blood tests, imaging, antibiotic days, hospital days etc.). Direct costs were higher for cases vs. controls (CLABSI: $6400 vs. $2376 (p
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