AmedNews.com reports on new laws in Colorado which will enable physicians to review and contest health plan rating systems, patients to have standardized and possibly electronic health plan IDs, and insurance companies to develop new types of plans that the state may help consumers purchase.

The Michigan Health & Hospital Association joins a growing list of hospital associations, states and payers who have adopted policies to stop billing patients for certain serious preventable errors ("never events") and hospital-acquired conditions. This follows on from Medicare's decision to cease payment from 2008, for specific hospital medical errors.

iHealthBeat reports it will be at least a further six months before Colorado residents can access hospital-acquired infection rates and other data that could help them select a hospital for surgery.

The Colorado Hospital Association have released their Hospital Report card reporting on the performance of hospitals in Colorado. As previous reported, the publishing of this Colorado Hospital Report Card to the general public was stipulated by state legislature in 2006 (House Bill 06-1278).

Following in the steps of Massachusetts and Minnesota hospitals, hospitals in Colorado may soon waiver payments for some adverse events, reports Fierce Healthcare.

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

Arkansas

An interesting article in a Colarado based newspaper (Rocky Mountain News) last Thursday, looked at an initiative by several Colorado hospitals who have begun sharing estimates of the out-of-pocket costs patients may incur. A move towards cost transparency at hospitals so patients are not surprised when they receive their bills.

AHA News reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opened to all U.S. hospitals its Web-based network for tracking healthcare-associated infections. It said the National Healthcare Safety Network has been improved to meet the needs of states with mandatory reporting of HAIs, and that eight states (California, Colorado, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia) plan to use the network in implementing mandatory reporting. CDC said the secured network allows hospitals to analyze the data and share it within a facility or with the general public if desired.

The Colorado Hospital Association will commence reporting on the performance of hospitals in Colorado via their Web-based report card which is scheduled to be available to the public from November 30, 2007. The publishing of this Colorado Hospital Report Card to the general public was stipulated by state legislature in 2006 (House Bill 06-1278).

The site will report mortality rates, the number of procedures and other patient safety measures used by Colorado hospitals with the potential future reporting of clinical quality, best practices, patient satisfaction scores and efficiency of care.