CMS Delivers Updates for Hospital Outpatient Information

In support of the delivery of high-quality, efficient healthcare and enable consumers to make more informed healthcare decisions, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is making cost and quality data available to all Americans. 

As part of this initiative, Medicare posted information in 2007 and 2008 about the payments it made during the previous year for common and elective procedures and services provided by hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), hospital outpatient departments, and physicians.

The hospital information is posted on the hospital compare Web site where it can be viewed along with hospital quality information. The hospital compare Web site may be found at www.medicare.gov. 

On August 28, 2009, Medicare posted an update to the ambulatory surgery center data. An update to the physician payment data was posted on September 25, 2009 and an update to the hospital outpatient department data was posted on October 14, 2009. The information is being displayed in the same format as in previous years, updated with calendar year (CY) 2008 data. The posting updates may be found at: www.cms.hhs.gov/HealthCareConInit/.