The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), has posted the costs it pays hospitals for 30 common elective procedures and other hospital admissions. The information is categorized by state and county and includes a range of prices, the national average payment for the procedure, and the number of cases the hospital has handled. President Bush directed the data be made publicly available to all Americans as part of the Administration’s commitment to make health care more affordable and accessible.

The new information includes 30 common elective procedures including heart operations and implanting cardiac defibrillators, hip and knee replacements, kidney and urinary tract operations, and for common non-surgical admissions. In addition, CMS will post payment information for common elective procedures for ambulatory surgery centers later this summer, and common hospital outpatient and physician services this fall.

This is an important step toward transparency in helping providers improve by measuring their performance against cohorts in the field.

Additional information can be found on the CMS website, including links to files containing the top 30 in-patient hospital Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) and in-patient hospital DRGs of high utilization, at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit/01_Overview.asp .