Tom George of KOKH, Oklahoma City’s local Fox affiliate, interviewed me yesterday.  One thing I would like to highlight is that the questions Tom asked me were uniquely different in that they were directed at the price transparency “movement” rather than the transparent pricing at just our facility.  This subtle change is an indication that the argument that upfront medical pricing is an impossibility has now been dismissed, recognized clearly now as a stall tactic and a lie.  Those who reject honest medical pricing do so not because they can’t, but because they don’t want to.  The widespread adoption of upfront pricing is now taken for granted!

Our Free Market Medical Association convention this past weekend (about which I will have more to say) highlighted those who are providing honest pricing because it is the right thing to do. Those who are reluctant will follow suit or face the loss of business and patients to those who are embracing price honesty and market discipline. The grip of the health system cartels will continue to unravel as more and more patients travel to fairly priced facilities to receive their care. This “domestic medical tourism” has been fueled primarily by self-funded employers who happily pay for travel and lodging for their employees, rather than expose their health plan to bankruptcy by the “not for profit” hospital systems.

What an exciting “movement.”  Tom George’s well-done story paints transparent pricing as the movement it has become, a subtle but important point, one which will not be lost on the early adopters of this new approach to healthcare delivery.

G. Keith Smith, M.D.