Check |
Information about you hospital's outpatient services and charges may now be available for free on the Internet. The American Hospital Directory has been providing the operating details of virtually every hospital in the United States since September 1997.
| Even if your hospital isn't listed, you can compare normal prices and volume before submitting yourself to the dictates of your hospital. These on-line reports describe a hospital's general characteristics, services provided, financial information, volumes, average lengths of stay, average charges and much more. The data on the AHD Web site is gleaned from every acute care hospital that treats Medicare patients. These hospitals are required to submit annual reports detailing their financial operations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies (CMS) and their Medicare claims are available in public use files that have been encrypted to protect patient confidentiality. AHD presents these data in easily accessible, user-friendly reports that are consistent with CMS Data Release policies. In August 2000 the Medicare program introduced a new outpatient prospective payment system . This system groups hospital outpatient services into Ambulatory Payment Classifications (APCs) and pays hospitals a predetermined amount for each of those classifications. The AHD Web site reports a hospital's average charges, payments, and costs for the twenty APCs with the highest revenue for the 12 months ending March 30, 2002. These Top 20 APCs typically represent about half of the hospital's total outpatient revenue. Hospitals will find the information useful in benchmarking their performance and market share among peers. Patients will find the information useful in comparing prices and services among hospitals. Paul Shoemaker, Chairman of American Hospital Directory states, "This new addition to the AHD Web site is timely because people are now taking more responsibility in health care decisions. They want to know which hospitals are most efficient, demonstrate the best outcomes, and specialize in the services they seek." |
Volumes and average charges for individual diagnoses, procedures, and ambulatory patient groupings are also important. At a time when hospitals are learning to manage effectively under the new prospective payment system for Medicare outpatient services and when health plans and other payers are seeking to contract with hospitals for outpatient services, they are very important.
The Good News Is: |
"Ahd.com is committed to maintaining free services that are subsidized by advertising and subscription services for industry users...and committed to continuously improving the scope and presentation of content based on feedback from all those who use it," Shoemaker insisted.
Naturally, AHD will also offer more detailed subscription services and custom data reporting for those who need it.
The bottom line is, the American Hospital Directory will continue to play a role in supporting the public accountability that makes this country's health care delivery system the finest in the world.
For more information, visit the Web site at http://www.ahd.com.
Lin Stone is a writer, author, photographer, and is now concentrating on producing html works exclusively for Browzer Books.
PROFILE: As a full time freelance writer my business articles have appeared in many Bureau of Business Practice publications. My writing and/or photographs have also been published in Farm Pond Harvest, Life in the Times, Party & Paper, American Salesman, Today's Pawnbroker, Opportunity, Good Reading, Farm Store, Crappie Fisherman, Little Rock Free Press, Arkansas Women's Journal, Fennetration, etc.
Your Medical Care can be more affordable, and more accessible. |
NOW is the time to share this information with every neighbor and form a neighborhood group that can help each other. Anarchy and riots could break out and law enforcement agencies may be operating sporadically if at all as we have witnessed in New Orleans.
The Role of the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner
Find Out More About Everything Worth Insuring in Your Life