quality data

Massachusetts will soon begin disclosing the rates insurers pay for procedures at individual hospitals, a move made possible by the state's health reform law. State regulators expect to publish the... Read more...

A new study has suggested that many hospital comparison sites may not be accomplishing their intended mission. The study, published in this month's Archives of Surgery, found that these sites use... Read more...

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center is building a national reputation as a pediatric care center, attracting a quarter of its patients from out of its service area. It's done that, in part,... Read more...

New York City's 11 public hospitals will soon begin publicizing infection and death rates, spurred partly by the growing national concern about hospital-acquired conditions. In so doing, they're... Read more...

Concerned about several health insurers' decision to rate and rank physicians, a Texas medical group has decided to fire back with ratings on insurers. The Harris County Medical Society, working with... Read more...

> Health plans have made strides in gathering and publishing healthcare quality data and prices, but still have a ways to go, according to one employer-related trade group. Read more...

The California Department of Insurers is engaging in a unique project--it plans to begin issuing a "healthcare report card" on six of the state's largest PPOs. The new report cards will include... Read more...

The state of Nevada has passed a new law which requires hospitals to submit quality and cost information to state officials. The information, which will include average lengths of stay and average charges for the top 50 diagnoses, will be posted on a Web site by 2009. While the Nevada Hospital Association already shares data on its members' prices, it hasn't posted quality of care information. Nevada follows several other states which have …

... Read more...

While posting prices online is fine, it may not necessarily help patients choose the best value for their dollar, critics say. While lower prices may suggest a hospital is more efficient--and getting patients well faster--that's not necessarily the case, advocates note. In addition, the rash of hospital prices being posted vary widely; for example, some hospitals quote their median fee paid to contracted health plans, while others quote "sticker prices" that don't really give a sense of a …

... Read more...

As readers know, there's far too many ways to present healthcare quality data, a state of affairs which has created confusion among both providers and consumers. To help resolve these differences HHS has released a Website outlining different approaches to quality reporting. Article