I came across this write up today about the Oklahoma Surgery Center. Market-Based, Deeply-Discounted Surgery for Cash, Payable in Advance
Below is a price schedule from the heroic Surgery Center of Oaklahoma. It's what an Obamacare free, non-government intrusive medical care industry would start to look like. Given the regulation surrounding the healthcare sector it is quite amazing this surgery center has been able to fight through the red tape to provide the low prices they are. Free the healthcare industry from government red tape and we would see falling medical care prices everywhere in the country and who knows what kind of innovations. ... The article contains a list of surgeries here and their prices. ... "The Surgery Center of Oklahoma <http://surgerycenterok.com/index.php> is a 32,535 square foot, state-of-the-art multispecialty facility in Oklahoma City, owned and operated by approximately 40 of the top surgeons and anesthesiologists in central Oklahoma. The facility has been accredited by the AAAHC since 1998 without interruption and has annually provided care to thousands of patients. If you have a high deductible or are part of a self-insured plan at a large company, you owe it to yourself or your business to take a look at our facility and pricing which is listed on this site. If you are considering a trip to a foreign country to have your surgery, you should look here first. Finally, if you have no insurance at all, this facility will provide quality and pricing that we believe are unmatched." >From the FAQ section <http://www.surgerycenterok.com/faq.php>: "To keep our prices as low as possible, cashier's checks or cash are the methods preferred. Credit cards and personal checks cannot be accepted. Human resource departments or divisions of self-insured companies can make other arrangements if necessary. Payment in full is required at the time service is rendered. No payment arrangements can be made. These deeply-discounted prices are otherwise not available." http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/04/market-based-deeply-discounted-surgery.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+economicpolicyjournal%2FYZSb+%28EconomicPolicyJournal.com%29 I got interested in the Oklahoma Surgery Center and looked up more about them. One of the doctors at the center is G. Keith Smith. He has a very interesting blog: http://surgerycenterofoklahoma.tumblr.com/ Here are some excerpts: TV story reveals hospital pricing illegitimacy KOCO TV, here in Oklahoma City, did a story on our facility and the centers transparent and packaged pricing recently. You can view it here. In response to the question ..how can you be so much cheaper than the hospitals.. I said, ..we didnt have an administrator in a $3000 suit. While this is true, there is a better answer, I think, to this question. The question posed presumes that the prices charged by the hospitals are reasonable and legitimate, when in fact, they are not. The question is not, how can you be so much cheaper, but rather, how can they justify charging ten times what we do, as is the case, much of the time. Starting with the notion or idea that hospital charges are legitimate is a mistake. The lack of the free market in medicine (well except for places like The Surgery Center of Oklahoma!) has guaranteed the absence of rational pricing. Mises made this point in his brilliant book Socialism. Economic systems without rational pricing are always doomed to fail as the feedback to producers and consumers is faulty, resulting in inevitable surpluses or shortages. I have told people recently that we wont really know whether our prices are right until we have competitors displaying their prices, bringing about the price competition that is so sorely needed in healthcare. I think that 1/10 of the hospitals price is a great starting place though! I have been approached by insurance companies that offered payment contracts to our facility based on a super-percentage of Medicare. We will pay you 125% of the Medicare rate. You should see the looks of consternation I get when I tell these executives that Medicare rates mean nothing to me, that these numbers are arbitrary, capricious and not legitimate. But Medicare pricing, which is completely illegitimate, is the standard. Why? Because most have weakly accepted it as such. My point here is that hospital charges should command our scrutiny, not represent some mysterious standard. If you are inclined towards socialism or socialized medicine, you will probably not like this guy. The blog is probably still worth checking out just to see what a free market guy has to say about health care. J - Ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. - Henry Kissinger Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349630 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
