The Wall Street Journal reports that the nonprofit Consumers Union created a service that rates hospitals.  The site will have ratings of more than 3,000 facilities and will offer intensity of care ratings:

Consumers will be able to see a graph showing how intensely each hospital tends to treat patients, on a scale from zero for the most conservative to 100 for the most aggressive. Intensity of care is based on time spent in the hospital and the number of doctor visits. The index reflects the hospital's handling of nine serious conditions, including cancer and heart failure, when it treats patients in the last two years of life.

The new Consumer Reports online offering will also include a dollar figure that reflects an average out-of-pocket cost for doctor visits during the last two years of life for the nine conditions, though that doesn't match up to the charge for any particular service.

The Tool is available at Consumer Reports Health website.  Hospitals are listed in alphabetical order, the facility is rated on how aggressive the care is, and then the average dollar amount is listed:



The Consumer Reports Health Blog discusses why the new tool and their Health Ratings Center have been developed.  They ask for feedback on the tool and make it clear their rating system "is not designed as a quality indicator":

Is aggressiveness of care the only measure available for choosing a hospital?
No, it should only be part of the equation. Medicare outcomes data, how hospitals give treatment and preventive care, and patient satisfaction information are available at the government's Hospital Compare Website.

Sources: Consumer Reports, The Wall Street Journal.