Hello, Dr. Keith Smith with you, Surgery Center of Oklahoma. Thank you for joining me.

I would like to talk for a little about bundled pricing and what it means to us. Here at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, a bundled price means a patient can pay the online advertised price and walk out of our facility after they receive their care very confident that no surprise bills will arrive.

That is why for instance, pathology charges are embedded in our bundles. Patients need not fear the arrive of those bills later. When we constructed our total knee and total hip prices, we got all the players around the table involved in the patients care who would need to be payed, secured their pricing and bundled it up, so there would be no bills later.

In spite of all our effort and thought around bundles invariably things have come up. Things have come up that have resulted in a little bit of a surprise. To the extent that this has felt like a bait and switch to some patients, we have addressed them. I am proud to say the latest that we have addressed is a hearing test after ear tubes are placed, many times in children. These hearing tests are performed 90 – 120 days after the procedure.

I enjoy lowering prices and you’ve seen me do that on this blog. But, I enjoy even more leaving the prices alone and adding services, which is exactly what we’ve done. Now with exactly the same price we have advertised online for placement of ear tubes, is included a hearing test.

I would like to thank all the ear nose and throat partners at the Surgery Center of Oklahoma for their help in putting this bundle together, a true bundle that will help all of the families with children that come here avoid unnecessary bills later.

Thank you for joining me. We will see you next time.