Maine hospital costs made public
Prices for the 100 most common hospital procedures vary widely across different Maine hospitals, according to data released Wednesday by the federal government.
The Bangor Daily News reported the data reveals what 3,300 U.S. hospitals are charging Medicare for those procedures and how much Medicare, in turn, paid out.
The data release comes as lawmakers in Augusta debated a bill that would create a state agency to analyze hospital financial data and make public an annual study of that information and price variations.
The federal data release is part of an effort to provide greater transparency to hospital pricing as a way to ultimately reduce costs. But critics say that the data doesn't provide the whole picture because it doesn't evaluate hospital quality and that more information is required for patients to effectively negotiate lower prices.
See the payment data here.
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