Surgery Center Sets The Pace With Upfront Pricing
Why can’t, or don’t, hospitals post prices online?
By Jaclyn Cosgrove
When you go to buy a car, you know that you probably aren’t going to pay sticker price. Health care is kind of like that, except that no one is sure what sticker price even is.
Dr. G. Keith Smith is running a different kind of dealership. Smith is co-founder of the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, one of the few medical facilities in the nation that posts the prices of its surgeries on its website.
Smith has a theory as to what would happen if every hospital in the Oklahoma City metro posted its prices online tomorrow.
“(Prices) would be temporary, and then the market would do its magic,” Smith said. “And then people would say, ‘Wait a minute, this hysterectomy is $18,000 more than this one — is this one $18,000 better? Why is this one more?’ … They would say the Surgery Center of Oklahoma’s hysterectomy is $8,000. This surgery center is charging $6,000, so why are you $2,000 better? I would be happy to have that conversation with them if someone undercut us. It’s not just about price. It’s about value. It’s about quality.”