According to InformationWeek, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is using a $100 million settlement from health insurance companies to build a database and Web site that will provide consumers with impartial information about out-of-network health care costs.

Cuomo has used the money to launch a not-for-profit company, FAIR Health, Inc., and a research network headquartered at Syracuse University to run the database and Web site. Consumers will be able to see what they will have to pay out of pocket before getting out-of-network treatments. Cuomo claims the project will:

bring much-needed transparency, accountability and fairness to a broken consumer reimbursement system.