Are you serious? If you have to call for a price, it isn't
transparent. And none of that flows to the customer in an easily
comprehensible way. On the margins, of course, when you are in
deductible land, there is some incentive to select a lower cost
provider. But you are rarely in a position where you can easily
choose.
If hospitals and clinics advertised prices, people could choose
which they prefer on a regular basis.
And when every man-jack is sending you a different bill for an x-ray
ordered by a doctor, or a seperate fee for anesthesia, and you had
no input as to the price and method of selection for that vendor, it
is not transparent. And that is the way it is in many situations
involving hospital stays.
Until you can get providers advertising all-in prices for an
angioplasty or a knee replacement, and you can select any of them
that meet certain underwriting criteria, it isn't transparent.
That is the key; there has to be incentive to shop. For example, you
get people signing up for HMOs knowing that they will have less
choice, just so they can get a lower insurance payment. And if people
can make choices for who they get to do procedures, based on price
and consumer ratings, the tendency will be to try and compete for
that business.
--
Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. -- Francis Bacon