Eric Bricker: Price and Quality are NOT Correlated in Healthcare

Eric Bricker, Medical Director of SimplePay Health, shared a post on LinkedIn:

Healthcare Price-Quality Disconnect… Think Higher Prices Mean Higher Quality? Wrong. Here’s Why:

Price and Quality are NOT Correlated in Healthcare.

3 Examples:

1) Let’s Say the Facility Allowed Amount for a Surgery at a Hospital (e.g. arthroscopic knee surgery or hernia repair) is $16,000. That Same Surgery with the Same Surgeon Would Have a Facility Allowed Amount of Only $4,000 at an Ambulatory Surgery Center.

Price Not Related to Quality.

2) Let’s Say a Hospital Outpatient Surgery (e.g. gallbladder removal) Has a Facility Allowed Amount of $28,000. That Same Surgery at the Same Hospital with the Same Surgeon Would Have a Facility Allowed Amount of Only $2,500 if the Patient Says Overnight and the Surgery is Considered Inpatient.

Price Not Related to Quality.

3) A Study by Dr. Atul Gawande Found that Hospitals Make More Money Off of Surgery for Commercially Insured Patients AND Have a Higher Profit Margin If There are Complications.

The Price Goes Up as the Quality Goes Down.

Note: Atul Gawande is no longer the head of Haven… the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan Chase Joint Venture… and Haven has been wound down and no longer exists.

For the video attached to the post click here. 

Source: Eric Bricker/LinkedIn