Forbes Mag Profiles Surgery Center of OK, A Model For Cost Savings
DIY Health Reform Reduces Surgery Costs 50-90%
Time magazine’s recent Bitter Pill cover story was long on outlining the healthcare industry’s problems but short on solutions. Fortunately, as outlined in Healthcare’s Trillion Dollar Disruption, there is no need for new models or drugs to be invented. The government simply needs to remove the obstacles, where they exist, to scaling the models outlined in the The Volume-to-Value Revolution (PDF). One model that needed no government dispensation has the potential to save businesses and consumers billions of dollars if it’s scaled beyond its success at a surgery center in the heartland.
To the uninitiated the breakthrough is something that would seem obvious in any other industry — transparently post pricing for healthcare services. The model is similar to Walmart’s Center’s of Excellence program that Atul Gawande tweeted about stating “this will change medicine”. [Read Leah Binder and Larry Husten’s commentary on Walmart’s program.] In a nutshell, there is one fixed price for a given surgical procedure. This sits in stark contrast to the norm of having no idea what a surgical procedure will cost and then receiving a confusing array of bills from multiple different sources — e.g., surgeon, anesthesiologist, hospital, etc.