Since it runs the Medicare program, the federal government has lots of information about the performance of hospitals. This data could, if opened up to the public, be useful in helping consumers make their own decisions.

The National Center for Policy Analysis offers a quick review of a recent move to release some of that data to the public. It notes that the federal government still "withholds specific death rates and leaves 98 percent of hospitals in the USA "virtually indistinguishable from each other."