by Robert Nelson, MD
When we have a situation, as we do in healthcare, where the networks have cornered the market and control the pipeline of patients, along with the magnitude & directional flow of money in the system, that which follows is a de facto CARTEL of very unequal participants; one where the disconnect between the ability of the supply side and demand side to send meaningful price signals to each other is necessarily suppressed by the financial design of the network payment/reimbursement mechanism.
What characterizes the network as a consumer/buyer benefactor by way of “negotiated discounts” for services rendered, in reality ends up suppressing the only forces (price signals) which are capable of determing value and controlling prices. All this being to the detriment of end users and/or first order buyers of healthcare resources.
Forum for Healthcare Freedom 