Health Care Advocates' Pricing Pushback

In the meantime, California released some groundbreaking information about hospital quality just this week. For the first time ever, California has published mortality rates for patients undergoing heart bypasses at every hospital that performs the surgeries across the state.

Four of those 121 hospitals emerged with higher death rates than anticipated. All four were owned by Tenet Healthcare (THC Quote - Cramer on THC - Stock Picks) when the surgeries took place in 2003.

"The 2003 data showed positive areas at Tenet hospitals -- and some problem areas," Tenet spokesman Steven Campanini acknowledged. "We expect 2004 and 2005 data to show some improvements."

Joseph Carey, executive director of the California Society of Thoracic Surgeons, has portrayed such progress as essential. Rather bluntly, Carey told The Los Angeles Times this week that underperforming heart programs will shut down "once the public finds out that these places are not doing a good job."

But Frogue, for one, believes that hospitals -- like patients -- will benefit from enhanced disclosures in the end.

"Hospitals certainly are not the enemy; we're not trying to paint them as the big, evil guys," Frogue says. "But at the same time, we're trying to help them help themselves -- because this trend is coming, whether they like it or not."

'The Public Interest'

The Federation of American Hospitals, which represents for-profit players such as HCA (HCA Quote - Cramer on HCA - Stock Picks) and Tenet, has long suggested that hospital sticker prices would prove meaningless to everyday consumers.

In an op-ed piece published by Modern Healthcare two years ago, Federation President Chip Kahn said that consumers should instead continue to rely on health insurers -- which negotiate wholesale discounts with hospitals -- to seek their savings for them. The Federation directed TheStreet.com to that same article when asked for its view on the matter right now.

Ironically, some hospitals have found themselves fighting to use valuable pricing information themselves. One of the industry's biggest purchasing groups is currently in the midst of a courtroom battle with Guidant (GDT Quote - Cramer on GDT - Stock Picks) as it seeks to use pricing data on heart devices -- deemed confidential by Guidant itself -- that might help its hospital clients save money.