The White House announced Friday that there have been over 100,000 downloads of its Medicare hospital charge data in the first 24 hours of availability — a milestone for the administration’s new open data initiative.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama signed an executive order mandating that government data be made available to the public in open, machine-readable formats to foster innovation and economic growth. It could also drive down health care costs: The charge data was released in response to TIME’s Bitter Pill cover story, which revealed that hospitals often overcharge for services provided at a fraction of the cost to patients covered by Medicare.
To view the Medicare charge data, click here.
To read “Bitter Pill,” click here.