American consumers gained considerable knowledge and power when a huge Medicare database was recently distributed to the public in easy-to-understand language.
The data revealed what many patients have long suspected – hospitals charge Medicare tremendously different prices for the same procedures.
According to The New York Times, for example, “in Saint Augustine, Fla., one hospital typically billed nearly $40,000 to remove a gallbladder using minimally invasive surgery, while one in Orange Park, Fla., charged $91,000 [and] … in one hospital in Dallas, the average bill for treating simple pneumonia was $14,610, while another there charged over $38,000.”
This wasn’t the first time that a freshly unearthed government database bolstered the average consumer. Earlier this spring, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released detailed – but fully understandable – data that showed which banks have the most consumer complaints. The CFPB had previously issued data on credit card complaints; but now it has broadened its data distribution to include customer protests about mortgages, student loans, credit scores, and other products.
As Bloomberg Businessweek, noted, the CFPB database has already had an impact on improving consumer service: “Response times have sped up by 3 percent since the database came online … And banks are giving more customers a break: The number of credit-card cases Capital One Financial, Citigroup, American Express, and GE Capital Retail Bank have resolved in clients’ favor rose 12.9 percent in the past six months.”
The Medicare and CFPB data disclosures are huge wins for the open-data movement, which seeks to democratize a vast treasure trove of accumulated government data. That consumers can now command equal footing with big, established, and often opaque institutions like banks or hospitals, is yet another reason to support open data.
The Latest Bing News on:
Open Data Movement
- Give the 'No Mow May' movement a tryon May 11, 2024 at 6:02 am
If your lawn is still cringing after the chilly spring, that’s a perfect reason to put off mowing a little longer. No Mow May, a program introduced by Bee City USA, aims to help early ...
- The Donald Ross Road bridge is open again after construction, but not for longon May 8, 2024 at 7:59 am
Both lanes are open, for now. When will the west lanes close for maintenance? Palm Beach County officials say it will happen soon.
- Gen Z activists look to shake up the anti-abortion movementon May 6, 2024 at 4:01 am
He is part of an often overlooked coalition of young voters who are pushing the anti-abortion movement to expand its tent and tap into the growing political power of Gen Zers. Partisan gap on ...
- Airbyte Opens Doors to Technology Services Partners Worldwide to Serve Customers with Data Movement Projectson May 2, 2024 at 5:00 am
creators of the leading open-source data movement infrastructure, today introduced a partner program helping technology service providers grow top-line revenue and bottom-line profitability. All that ...
- ‘The movement will persist’: Advocates stress Weinstein reversal doesn’t derail #MeToo reckoningon April 25, 2024 at 9:42 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — #MeToo founder Tarana Burke has heard it before. Every time there’s a legal setback, the movement is declared dead in the water. A legal success, and presto, it’s alive again.
- Leh-Manali National Highway now open for vehicular movementon April 25, 2024 at 11:04 am
As per the latest development, the 428-km Leh-Manali National Highway is now open for vehicular movement. Officials in the know-how added that the Border Roads Organisation has successfully ...
- Colorado launches wolf depredation report site; new movement map releasedon April 24, 2024 at 2:44 pm
CPW has been sharing maps of the watersheds that the gray wolves’ GPS collar data puts them in ... in the Endangered Species Act. CPW’s movement map shows that the reintroduced wolves have ...
- PAC Profile: Build Our Movementon April 23, 2024 at 2:18 pm
Based on data released by the Federal Election Commission on April 23, 2024 except for independent expenditure and communication cost, contributions to federal candidates, and contributions from ...
- The Coolest Big Data Management And Integration Tool Companies Of The 2024 Big Data 100on April 23, 2024 at 11:00 am
tools space with its open-source data movement/data integration platform and connectors for setting up and running data movement operations. Last month Airbyte said more than 5,000 connectors had ...
- Vacaville City Council to discuss financial transparencyon April 22, 2024 at 8:17 am
“Socrata has been a leader in the open data movement, providing transparent access to government financial data through an intuitive, user-friendly interface making it easy for residents to ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Open Data Movement
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Open Data Movement” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Open Data
- Asia-Pacific markets are mostly set to open lower as investors await key economic data from Chinaon May 16, 2024 at 4:51 pm
Investors will assess a slew of data from China, including its urban unemployment rate, retail sales, and industrial production ...
- OpenAI's New Reddit Deal Means Real-Time Data for You ChatGPT Userson May 16, 2024 at 3:55 pm
It's good news for ChatGPT users who want more timely content and an awareness of current events. Right now, the company's ChatGPT 4 offering (which costs $20 a month) knows things only up to August ...
- GE Ultrasound Gear Riddled With Bugs, Open to Ransomware & Data Thefton May 16, 2024 at 2:35 pm
Thankfully, GE ultrasounds aren't Internet-facing. Exploiting most of the bugs to cause serious damage to patients would require physical device access.
- Worldcoin Releases Open-Source Biometric Data Systemon May 16, 2024 at 9:16 am
Worldcoin’s new approach, now open-source on GitHub, encrypts iris codes into multiple secret shares distributed among various parties. These parties work together to compute results over the ...
- PAIX to open data centre in Djiboution May 16, 2024 at 6:01 am
PAIX Data Centres announced a joint venture with the Djibouti Sovereign Fund to construct a data centre in Djibouti, a move to serve growing connectivity demand in East Africa.
- Rupee to open higher after data boosts odds of Fed rate cutson May 15, 2024 at 8:14 pm
The Indian rupee will open higher on Thursday after weak U.S. retail sales and cooling U.S. inflation made it more likely that the Federal Reserve will cut rates later this year. Non-deliverable ...
- CNBC Daily Open: Wall Street hits record highs as rate cut bets rise on soft inflation dataon May 15, 2024 at 5:48 pm
This report is from today's CNBC Daily Open, our new, international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like ...
- Open Property Data Association Supports Standardization to Help Enhance Homebuying Process in the UKon May 15, 2024 at 1:17 am
The Open Property Data Association supports the standardization of open property data to streamline the homebuying process for buyers, sellers, estate agents and solicitors with its trust framework – ...
- How to ensure biodiversity data are FAIR, linked, open and future-proofon May 14, 2024 at 1:26 pm
Within the Biodiversity Community Integrated Knowledge Library (BiCIKL) project, 14 European institutions from ten countries, spent the last three years elaborating on services and high-tech digital ...
- Open Map Data from Overture Maps Foundation Draws More Industries and Companieson May 14, 2024 at 7:28 am
Foundation's growth shows industries such as automotive, spatial imaging, and consumer all want open map data . SAN FRANCISCO, /PRNewswire/ -- The Overture Maps Found ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Open Data
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Open Data” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]