Hospital medical costs

More good data from Consumer Reports on medical costs analysis. McAllen Texas, a border town, has the most expensive average care (that they have data for, they need more for instance Med city isn't on there - we've got so many hospitals in the area... probably a good thing)

Overtreatment: The lesson of McAllen, Texas : Consumer Reports Health Blog http://bit.ly/4RVOX

some parts of the country spend a lot more on health care than other parts—but don’t get better results. John E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., Elliott Fisher, M.D., M.P.H., and their colleagues at the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, who have spent several decades documenting and researching this issue, have estimated that if every place in the U.S. practiced the same kind of medicine as the most frugal places, we could cut costs by as much as 30 percent and still end up just as healthy.

Hospital cost comparison tool here - somewhat useful but they need more data/hospitals (we've got so many around here)

Your Hospital Stay - Compare Hospitals for Chronic Care http://bit.ly/109nNk

Umass medical comes in right about the middle, others in the area are way high like Mass General, Clinton; Harrington in Southbridge a bit too conservative probably. Don't get sick on the Cape either- way low.