This article is a bit misleading. An outpatient surgery center has the luxury of "skimming" the easy uncomplicated same-day surgeries while leaving the hospitals to do the heavy lifting. It is
not a hospital
Surgery centers do not have the cost of carry of a pharmacy(24/7), a fully functioning diagnostic lab(24/7), an emergency room(24/7), 200-1000 beds, ICU,CCU, radiology department(24/7) etc and an infrastructure that is impressively expensive.
Its very very very easy to offer these surgeries at a cheaper price than a hospital but when you need a complicated surgery or an emergency that surgery center will not be there for you.
I like the idea of pricing transparency but it should be hand in hand with outcome and quality statistics and comparisons should be fair.
I did not see Oklahoma surgery center compare themselves to other surgery centers which are likely very close in price.
One last thing. In healthcare - price is not everything (its an important issue) but as we drive down the price, we must not sacrifice but rather improve outcome measurement and quality.
Surgery centers do not have the cost of carry of a pharmacy(24/7), a fully functioning diagnostic lab(24/7), an emergency room(24/7), 200-1000 beds, ICU,CCU, radiology department(24/7) etc and an infrastructure that is impressively expensive.
Its very very very easy to offer these surgeries at a cheaper price than a hospital but when you need a complicated surgery or an emergency that surgery center will not be there for you.
I like the idea of pricing transparency but it should be hand in hand with outcome and quality statistics and comparisons should be fair.
I did not see Oklahoma surgery center compare themselves to other surgery centers which are likely very close in price.
One last thing. In healthcare - price is not everything (its an important issue) but as we drive down the price, we must not sacrifice but rather improve outcome measurement and quality.