Do you remember last month when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released its database of what hospitals charge Medicare for the most common inpatient procedures (and later outpatient), and the result was a bulky excel spreadsheet that was 163,000 rows long and 12 columns wide and froze your computer any time you tried to open it? Or was that just me?
A new website called OpsCost takes the computer-freezing risk out of the game for you. Searchable by market and procedure, this seems more like the user-friendly website CMS has been touting will help consumers make cost-conscious health care choices.
Regarding the topic of releasing Medicare charges, the jury seems still to be out on what this actually means or accomplishes. Although some applaud the Obama administration for taking a step in price transparency, the hospital industry and other experts argue the “chargemaster” is essentially useless data because it isn’t a true reflection of what hospitals actually get paid for these services, even by the uninsured.
Still, it seems to have stirred conversation around the matter. What do you think?
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Date: Jun 12, 2013