New Hampshire’s hospital association became the few in the country to publicly post its state’s hospital charges for inpatient services, according to the Nashua Telegraph. Hospital associations in Wisconsin and Oregon also have web sites that provide comparative price data for hospitals. The New Hampshire Hospital Association’s web site details the number of patients who received a particular inpatient service at each of the state’s 26 hospitals; the average length of stay and average and median charges for that hospital; and aggregate payments by Medicare, Medicaid, and other payers, so consumers can see how hospitals’ charges compare with the amount of revenue hospitals actually collect for those services. The Telegraph article, however, cautions readers that the web site lists charges, not the actual price they will pay for an inpatient procedure. The NHHA told the Telegraph that the web site is a first step to greater price disclosure for all providers and that, eventually, it hopes to offer pricing information that is tailored to individual consumers.
