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U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 0
T
he beauty of the price transparency model
lies in its simplicity. You present all-in pric-
ing for each procedure your surgery center
offers, and patients pay the advertised amount.
That's it. There are no hidden costs, no surprise
bills and your facility, surgeons and anesthesia
providers get paid upfront for each case.
Increasing numbers of forward-thinking facili-
ties recognize price transparency can fix a broken
healthcare system built on price gouging and prof-
iteering. Joining the movement now will allow you
to capture more business in the short term and
set your facility apart from the competition as
transparent pricing gains traction. Here's how to
get started.
Set your prices
Poll your surgeons. Simply ask them how
much money they want to make for each procedure
they perform. Do the same with anesthesiologists.
Ask them to put a price on their time. For the facili-
ty fee, take a time-and-materials approach to calcu-
late how much it costs to run each of your ORs for
30 minutes. Calculate your fixed costs — staffing,
utilities, insurance — and pad it a bit to cover vari-
able supply costs for each case. I suggest using the
price list we created for my surgery center as a
starting point (surgerycenterok.com). Customers
visit the website to see exactly what they'll pay for
procedures, from $4,000 for a one-sided cataract
surgery to $38,000 for a single-level lumbar fusion.
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Price Transparency Is on the Way
The payment model promises to transform healthcare spending.
Business Advisor
G. Keith Smith, MD
OPEN FOR BUSINESS Dr. Smith wants patients who undergo surgeries at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma to know exactly how much their bills will be well in advance of their procedures.
Bryan
Terry
