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Massachusetts to post insurance payments to hospitals online

Patient Access Weekly Advisor, The Boston Globe, September 26, 2007

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Health insurance payments to Massachusetts hospitals will no longer be secret from the public beginning next year, according to an article in the Boston Globe.

The state's new Health Care Quality and Cost Council says the information will be made available online by March 2008. Currently, the law requires Massachusetts to post average payments from all insurers combined, the Globe reports. Governor Deval Patrick wants the state to post average payments from each individual insurer.

The move makes Massachusetts one of the few states in the nation to supply this type of information. New Hampshire already provides data on Emergency Room visits, CT and MRI scans, arthroscopic knee surgery and childbirth, the Globe reports.

In addition to payment information, the web site will also include scores for each hospital's quality measures.

Healthcare officials hail the plan for its transparency, saying it will improve the quality of care at hospitals because "they know everything is out there," says Dolores Mitchell, a council member and executive director of Massachusetts' Group Insurance Commission.

Massachusetts officials also hope the move will create a competitive healthcare market, reducing costs for the state's consumers.

However, the jury is out on the program until it begins, says Dr. Thomas Lee, a council member and president of the physician network for Partners HealthCare System, which includes Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"No one really knows what will happen when you put this information out there," Lee says in the Globe. "Most people predict a flattening of the market. . We don't go into negotiations trying to get all we can. We say, 'Here are our costs, and this is what we need.' There is already pressure to cut costs. Everyone I know is doing everything they can think of to lower costs."

To read the story in the Boston Globe, click here.

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