Massachusetts will provide online access to information on insurers’ payments to hospitals

The Boston Globe (9/22, Kowalcyzk) reported that Massachusetts residents will soon be able to access information on the "prices individual hospitals are paid by insurers for performing specific procedures — data state officials hope will encourage comparison shopping and reduce medical costs." The announcement "by the state’s new Health TheCare Quality and Cost Council makes Massachusetts one of the first states to make this normally secret information public." The new information will also allow people to see "whether hospitals adhere to best practices and achieve good outcomes for patients…for the procedures for which" payment is disclosed. This could lead consumers to decide, "for example, [that] if a hospital charges far more than other institutions for treating heart attack or pneumonia patients, but has lower quality scores, the extra cost is not justified."