t’s no secret hospitals overcharge some patients to pay costs for the uninsured or those who just fail to pay.

In New York State, for instance, hospitals near Albany charge patients an average of 2.3 times the cost of a service they provide, according to The Times Union in Albany. The reason the exact ratio near Albany is available is because New York requires hospitals to report to the state the cost of hospital services as well as how much patients are charged.

In Oregon, the ratio is a mystery. Hospitals are only required to report how much patients are charged, according to Gretchen Morley, director of Oregon’s Health Policy Commission. Morley says having no idea what care actually costs is a “real barrier to transparency.” It leaves the state and consumers less capable of making good judgments about how best to spend health care dollars, she added.

Her office, and the state’s Insurance Division, is trying to change that. The Insurance Division will be holding a public meeting April 3 to try to come up with a way to get at that information.

A variety of proposals will be looked at. Tina Edlund, the research and data manager for the Office for Oregon Health Policy Research, said insurers may be asked to cooperate in providing some price data. That still won’t be the actual cost of services, she said. But that may be as good as it gets. Only large hospital systems are likely to have done the kind of workplace studies necessary to determine the exact cost of a hospital service, she said.

The state’s effort to more accurately determine health care costs makes good sense. It would be best if participation for hospitals and insurers was mandatory and the effort was part of a broader effort to lift the veil on health care.

The state can start by making rate information for hospital services available to the public in a user-friendly format online. The Legislature, when it returns next year, should also require hospitals to report medical errors to Oregon’s Patient Safety Commission. Right now, participation is voluntary.

Health care reform is one of the most intractable problems facing the country. Nobody can do much about health care costs when policymakers are denied the facts. And consumers are not going to be able to make wise choices without the numbers at their fingertips.

The Insurance Division’s meeting on April 3 will be at 1 p.m. at the Labor and Industries building in Salem, conference room 260. The building is located at 350 Winter St. in Salem.