“ED physicians provide services to the patients that their hospital treats based on that hospital’s individual profile and resources, such as being a trauma center and having interventional cardiology services,” said Dr. Granovsky. “If your hospital has a lot of specialty services, a large volume of Medicare patients will be seen, and they will be more complex.”

Even factors such as proximity of urgent care centers will filter out lower-acuity patients and result in a higher ratio of more complex patients treated in the ED. Nearby nursing homes, too, can bring up the cost of providing care by simply contributing large volumes of patients.

The data release comes amid ongoing debate over how to better control costs in the Medicare program and how to rein in unnecessary care while improving patient outcomes. Medicare spending is near $600 billion annually, including payments to hospitals and physicians and costs for drugs. Cutting wasteful and fraudulent payments is one way to slow cost growth.

While the transparency intended by releasing the data might help some consumers choose which doctors they would like to see, when it comes to care in the ED, Dr. Granovsky is skeptical the information is useful for patients.

“I am not sure it is a valuable reference tool to help select an emergency department for care,” he said.

Kelly April Tyrrell is a freelance journalist based in Wilmington, Delaware.