The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration will post data on potentially preventable hospital readmissions on its consumer-oriented Web site FloridaHealthFinder.gov, in an effort to assist officials to identify and prevent avoidable hospitalizations, reports Modern Healthcare. The statewide figures will allow hospitals for the first time to track patients who may be discharged from one hospital and quickly readmitted to another.

The Florida Senate is expected to consider a bill that would require hospitals to post the pricing information of 150 commonly performed medical procedures on a state Web site, iHealthBeat reports.

Mark Alexander writes: "We recently published a major update of the FloridaHealthFinder.gov website, which provides a wealth of transparency information on Florida hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers."

The following is a summary of legislation by state regarding the disclosure by hospitals of their hospital infection rates.

Arkansas

Legislation introduced today by Representatives Rick Glazier, Martha Alexander, Lucy Allen, and Verla Insko falls short of what is needed to hold hospitals accountable for preventing patient infections, according to Consumers Union. HB 1738 establishes an advisory commission to develop recommendations for public reporting of hospital infection rates, but provides no guarantee that hospitals will be required to disclose such information.