One of the oddities of the medical care puzzle is that not all types of health care are created equal.

It’s relatively easy to equalize financial inputs into health care providers and facilities, but the quantity of dollars put into segments of the system does not necessarily mean an equal level of quality in the output (as is also the case in education).

Ratings of hospitals’ patient outcomes vary much more than the average American may realize, and one of the strongest indicators of the success of a given procedure is how often the hospital performs it.

But there are other measures as well, and some of them are being applied in Maine by such groups as the State Employee Health Commission (SEHC), which ranks Maine’s hospitals based partly on data collected by the Maine Health Management Coalition (www.getbettermaine.org).

The SEHC waives a member’s co-pays (up to $50 to $100 per day, no small benefit) if the member goes to one of its approved facilities, and in August the SECH will begin rating by price as well as care.

Only five Maine hospitals have been on the SEHC’s “preferred” list for five years or more. One is Mercy in Portland, and the others are MidCoast in Brunswick, Miles Memorial in Damariscotta, Mayo Regional in Dover-Foxcroft and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor.

Maine’s largest hospital, Portland’s Maine Medical Center, had to upgrade some cardiac care procedures and expects to regain preferred status next month. Augusta’s MaineGeneral Medical Center, which serves many state employees, also has achieved co-pay waiver status by adopting a five-year plan for a lower-cost, accountable care model.

So, rewarding quality care by hospitals increases the amount of quality care that hospitals provide. Perhaps it’s time to do more of it.