The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Friday updated the Hospital Compare consumer Web site to give consumers more information about their hospitals.
CMS officials said the new Web site will give patients more robust information to help them shop for hospital care based on quality and pricing.
In addition to adding new information from Medicare patients about their hospital stays, CMS is adding information about the number of elective hospital procedures provided to those patients and what Medicare pays for those services.
CMS officials said they intend to give patients quality information, patient satisfaction survey information and pricing information so beneficiaries and others can make more well-informed decisions about the quality and value of hospital services.
The Hospital Compare Web site can be found at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.
"By enhancing these resources, Medicare is strengthening its commitment to use the transparency of quality information to help give consumers more choice about the quality of their healthcare and how they may be able to lower their healthcare costs," said Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
The agency is continuing to give consumers more information and tools to make better decisions, said Leavitt, noting that HHS is continuing to work with partners such as the Hospital Quality Alliance.
The Hospital Compare Web site provides information on 26 quality measures, which include the process of care and outcomes measures. Also new to the site is patient experience of care information from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Hospital Survey, or HCAHPS.
The new pricing and volume information at Hospital Compare looks at the acute care hospital payments that Medicare made for treating beneficiaries with certain illnesses from October 2005 to September 2006.
"The Premier healthcare alliance commends CMS and HHS for taking steps to make information, such as patient satisfaction, more readily available to the public through its Hospital Compare consumer Web site," said Blair Childs, senior vice president of public affairs for the Premier healthcare alliance.
"Premier (has) learned that a combination of publicly reported information and financial incentives drive quality improvement," Childs added. "Premier believes that patient satisfaction is a very important part of the healthcare experience and supports CMS's actions to make this information publicly available."