Markets in Everything: Deeply-Discounted Surgery for Cash, Payable in Advance
The Surgery Center of Oklahoma offers deeply-discounted surgery, payable in advance in cash or cashier's check, see a sample of prices above (click to enlarge).From the FAQ section:
To keep our prices as low as possible, cashier's checks or cash are the methods preferred. Credit cards and personal checks cannot be accepted. Human resource departments or divisions of self-insured companies can make other arrangements if necessary.
Payment in full is required at the time service is rendered. No payment arrangements can be made. These deeply-discounted prices are otherwise not available.
HT: Jim DeLong via Nick Schulz
4 Comments:
Note that these are also some of the same procedures that are most amenable to medical tourism, orthopedic ones. So in one sense you have some us medical types pushing back against the tourist idea. Note the lower overhead as well with no insurance.
If you look at the reimbursement that doctors are recieving from the insurance companies whose clients they have as patients, you will find that these prices are substancially higher than what the doctors are currently recieving. I contend that these "Deeply-Discounted" prices are actually a significant raise in the pay for the doctors since they require advance payment in full.
I would concur with the second anonymous comments. You have to distinguish between discounts of an arbitrary list price, and actual transaction prices.
Insurance companies require discounts from the latter, and not the former, for a reason. So, the real sucker is the guy who is buying at list, or a discount from it. The docs should be required to post transaction prices.
Bill
We run a B&B in Veracruz, Mexico. We get visitors who come for dental work, scheduled operations, and some just to buy medicine, which, for here, you don't need a prescription. I had a double cataract operation 8 years ago and total cost was $1350 including hospital and all--private enterprise, not govt supported.
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