OSE_1309_part2_Layout 1 9/6/13 12:22 PM Page 48
release, $6,260 for an open rotator cuff repair, $2,255 for a lymph node
excision with biopsy and $6,990 for an anterior cruciate ligament
repair. The site lists well over 100 procedures, each with an all-inclusive price covering the facility fee, the surgeon's fee and anesthesia.
Hardware and implants are extra, but are provided at cost.
That unprecedented transparency was a great way to get noticed,
but it was also much more than just competitive jockeying. It was —
and is — part of a mission, a crusade to pull back the curtain on what
Dr. Smith sees as a corrupt, thoroughly inefficient and vastly overpriced system. "Health care doesn't cost that much," he insists. "That's
the myth. It's just what people are being charged for it is another matter altogether."
His formula for change: Provide great service and great quality at
fair and transparent prices, keep employees engaged and happy, strive
constantly to improve efficiency, and — above all — let the free market determine the outcome. "It is so simple," he says. "The hard part is
sweeping away all those obstacles that would make it sound something other than easy. The hard part is making it simple."
The big question
If the 6-OR Surgery Center of Oklahoma can post prices online, attract
and keep talented surgeons, charge far less than the norm and achieve
nearly 100% patient satisfaction, why can't everybody?
The short answer is inertia. Once the elephants are out and trampling, it's awfully hard to push them back into the cage. Add to that
the fact that a handful of influential people are doing quite well as a
result, and it becomes that much tougher to effect real change.
But Drs. Smith and Lantier are fiercely determined to do it — to
alter the face of health care. And price transparency is just the start.
For them, this is a war against a powerful axis that includes big hospi4 8
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2013
SC