Patients and physicians can now find out how much Medicare pays hospitals for certain common elective procedures and other admissions, and by fall, similar information on outpatient and physician services will be accessible.
The hospital information, which is posted on Medicare's Web site, includes aggregated payment information by county for fiscal year 2005. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have also released information on the volume of these procedures at each hospital.
“People need to know how much their health care costs,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said during a press briefing. “They need to know the quality of the care they receive, and they need to have a reason to care. Right now none of those things exist in our health care system.”
Mr. Leavitt said this information is the first step to greater transparency of health care cost and quality information. This summer, CMS officials plan to post Medicare payment information for common elective procedures performed at ambulatory surgery centers. And in the fall, the agency plans to post Medicare payment information for common hospital outpatient and physician services.
Ultimately, consumers will be able to use this type of information to make better decisions about their care, Mr. Leavitt said. For example, a patient in need of knee replacement surgery today would likely choose a hospital based on its location or the recommendation of a physician.
However, at some point in the future, patients will be able to assemble information on the number of knee replacement surgeries performed at a certain hospital, compare the quality of the hospital against national data, and see patient satisfaction information, he said.
The information released in June includes the range of Medicare payments and the volume of services for 30 conditions with the highest utilization rates among all Diagnosis Related Groups, including implanting cardiac defibrillators, hip and knee replacements, and gallbladder operations. Data also are available on conditions that were not in the top 30 DRGs but which are of interest to the Medicare community.
Hospital payment information is posted at www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit