The Michigan Health and Hospital Association decided their customers deserve more transparency and created a free web site which will give access to the 149 non-profit hospitals pricing. People will now be aware of the exact costs of 50 inpatient and 50 outpatient medical procedures and will be able to compare prices at different hospitals.

The prices of the procedures are expected to be reduced, considering the comparisons the consumers are able to make now. But people are still more likely to use the closes hospital in case of emergency or the hospital to which their doctor is affiliated.

The senior director of political and public affairs for the Michigan Health and Hospital Association Lori Latham said in an interview that “the public business have long called for more transparency in quality-of-care and pricing information.”

She also added that the public information will most certainly facilitate the path towards a more affordable health care, and will lead the way for improvement in the health care system. The new web site will not necessarily determine the pricier hospitals to reduce the costs of the procedures, but it will put them in the position to explain why they have higher prices.

Besides the list of prices for medical procedures, the site will also include the total number of patients by procedure and the average length of stay for Medicare inpatients. The data was provided by the Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Michigan initiative is not the first of its kind. Spectrum health initiated a similar program a year ago, followed by Oakwood Healthcare System. Others states are expected to follow the example.

The path towards more transparency has been opened; it’s now time for other states to take the same step. According to the vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association Nancy Foster, there are a low number of other states that are voluntarily making public the prices for medical services, which include Wisconsin, Washington and Iowa.