Health Care Value

Higher quality health care gets people back to their normal activities faster, and they stay healthier. High-quality care delivers higher value for your health care dollar. Hospitals and health systems in Wisconsin provide accessible, affordable health care in their communities.

Wisconsin is Ranked:

• 4th Largest Share of Five-Star Hospitals in the Country | Wisconsin hospitals’ have the fourth-most five-star rated hospitals in the country, according to the 2023 Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Read more.
• Second Best in the Nation for Rural Hospitals | Wisconsin's rural hospitals rank the second best in the country by the Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program and has been in the top 10 states in the country ever since 2015.
• Top Quartile in the Nation for Quality Care | The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) ranks Wisconsin in the top quartile of states for quality healthcare.
• 8th Lowest Cost of Care in the Nation | Forbes magazine recently released data showing Wisconsin's overall cost of care is the 8th lowest in the country.
• 7th Lowest in the Nation of Cost Deterring Patient Care | According to United Health Foundation's America's Health Rankings, Wisconsin has the 7th lowest rate of patients who are deterred from seeking care due to cost.

Price Transparency

Wisconsin hospitals have led the nation in their willingness to share information on the cost, quality and safety of the care they provide in their communities – making Wisconsin a national model for health care transparency.

Since 2005, Wisconsin hospitals have voluntarily provided information to consumers through the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center's PricePoint tool on a per-facility, per-procedure basis for the most common services.

In 2023, PricePoint unveiled a large expansion of this data set and a modern plain-language search function, assisting consumers in finding procedure codes and providing information on all services delivered in Wisconsin hospitals. This change is only the latest upgrade that 100% of Wisconsin hospitals have voluntarily provided to expand the utility of health care consumer data for patients.

To learn more about price transparency, please visit our Price Transparency webpage.

In the News

• The Cap Times: Wisconsin Hospitals Committed to Affordable, Quality Care (2023)
• InsideWis: In time of healthcare upheaval, quality of Wisconsin hospitals scores high (Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, 2023)
• PRESIDENT’S COLUMN: Hospitals Show Impressive Gains Complying with Federal Price Transparency Law (2023)
• GUEST COLUMN: Industry Voices—Let's be Transparent About Hospital Price Transparency (2023)

Assessing Health Care Value

In 2017, the Wisconsin Technology Council released a report, “Taking the Pulse: How Quality Healthcare Builds a Better Bottom Line”, which examined Wisconsin’s long-term record of providing some of the nation’s highest-quality health care. The report recommended touting that performance as a business attraction feature, especially in light of data that shows health insurance costs for Wisconsin employers at or slightly above the U.S. median.

In February 2023, the WTC released an update, “Taking the Pulse: How Quality Health Care Builds a Better Economy.” The report again concluding that Wisconsin’s top-quartile rankings for health-care quality and cost figures roughly in line with regional and national figures mean that Wisconsin workers and companies hold a competitive edge.