Abstract:OBJECTIVE To give the suggestion on improving the cost compensation mechanism for palliative care services in community health service centers(CHSC) by calculating the direct labor cost of palliative care services in CHSC. METHODS From March to June 2018, an institutional survey was performed to collect the data about each palliative care services in CHSC included basic human consumption and time consuming, technical difficulty, risk level and salary of medical staffs, and calculate the labor cost of services. RESULTS CHSC provided 233 palliative care services directly which included 191 paid services and 42 free services. The median of direct labor cost for paid services and free services were 30.9 (17.3, 3.1～384.4) yuan and 23.1 (40.9, 6.6～196.8) yuan, respectively. The median of direct labor cost and charges of 60 general, nursing and Traditional Chinese Medicine services which had charge standard for medical services in Shanghai were 27.8 (26.8, 6.5～384.4) yuan and 14.0 (20.5, 2.0～225.0) yuan, respectively. The direct human cost of 41 services(70.7%) was higher than the charging standard. CONCLUSION The direct labor cost of palliative care services in CHSC was much greater than the charging standard. Thee direct labor costs of the patient needed psychological and social support was large and lack of compensation mechanism. The government should formulate the special charging standards and special service cost compensation mechanisms for palliative care services to maintenance the ability of services provided in CHSC.