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2013
Awards
them done at home. In the last 6 months, the number of cases generated by the Internet has gone from 2% to 18%.
FORCED TRANSPARENCY?
Should Hospitals Be Forced to Publish Their Prices?
T
he Hospital Price Transparency Act of 2013, recently introduced in
the House of Representatives by Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.), would
"require hospitals to publicly disclose the prices they charge for
their most common medical procedures," says a release from Rep.
Lipinski's office.
Doing so, Congressman Lipinski continues, would "[allow] consumers
to make more informed choices, [encourage] competition among
providers, and ultimately [lead] to lower healthcare costs for the public."
Meanwhile, on the state level, North Carolina recently enacted legislation that will require hospitals and ASCs to disclose what they're paid for
140 common procedures and services.
There's one problem with mandated transparency, says Keith Smith,
MD, co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. It involves the government.
"I am not a fan," says Dr. Smith. "It simply provides an opportunity for
bureaucrats to sell exemptions. Hospitals will claim they're transparent
while providing little transparency.
"Anything the government gets involved with will either start out as
corrupt and bribe-ridden or end up that way shortly," he says. "Why not
let the market work? Those who won't disclose their prices will soon
enough encounter the brutal consequences that only the free market
can deliver. The desire for medical price transparency is sweeping the
country and the only thing that can derail this effort is some government
— Jim Burger
effort to support it."
S E P T E M B E R 2013 | 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
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