Hello, Dr. Keith Smith with you on behalf of the Free Market Medical Association (FMMA). Prior to the conference, I’d like to go over some terms and phrases like transparent pricing and free market pricing. We’ll discuss what they mean and what they don’t mean.
The co-founders of the FMMA – Jay Kempton and I both – have fears that these terms will be hijacked by trolls in the industry. Rather than subscribing to the principles and pillars of the FMMA, they’ll actually use these terms to their advantage and not be free market or transparent at all. Transparent or free market pricing is really easy to understand. It means that prices are visible for all to see, prices are available to any buyer and that there is no one serving as an intermediary charging for access to that pricing.
As Jay Kempton says, “If someone is charging admission to see the pricing inside of the box, that is not free market pricing.” That is the scam of PPO networks that we know here in the United States that have done nothing to help quality or control costs.
It’s also important to know where the pricing comes from. Free market pricing is actually the result of competitive activity. It emerges from competitive activity; it is never imposed from the top-down. Anyone that thinks that they know what a service should cost and imposes it top-down is going to be wrong. They’re going to be wrong high or low.
Furthermore, this is not a static situation. Free market pricing moves around, it changes. You’ve seen me make videos at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma where I actually lowered our prices. That is what the market does, it trends the prices lower until they reach a steady state. It simultaneously improves the quality delivered. I thought that this review of pricing, what truly is free market and transparent pricing was needed prior to our meeting later this month in Oklahoma City.
We hope to see you all here in Oklahoma City, August 18th – 20th at the Free Market Medical Association Conference, where you will hear more about transparent pricing, its meaning, significance and the importance of keeping these definitions very clear to keep those opportunists from hijacking these phrases.