The state of Oregon has launched a new Web site allowing consumers to compare the costs of 80 different procedures performed at the state's hospitals. The move makes Oregon one of the first states in the U.S. to provide this kind of data. New Hampshire and Pennsylvania offer similar reports, but few other states do.

The site (www.oregon.gov/DAS/OHPPR/comparehospitalcosts.shtml [1]) lets patients select a procedure, pick the hospitals they want to examine, then get the average and median payments for the surgery for each procedure. The numbers are drawn from data provided by the nine largest private health insurers in the state, but don't include Medicare, state insurance or self-pay numbers.

To learn more about the state's transparency efforts:
- read this Portland Business Journal article [2]

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