The following two sentences are the opening from a Wall Street Journal article that I recently read: “After David Hubbard underwent a routine echocardiogram at his cardiologist's office last year, he was surprised to learn that the heart scan cost his insurer $1,605. That was more than four times the $373 it paid when the 61-year-old optometrist from Reno, Nev., had the same procedure at the same office just six months earlier.”
The article is attached if you would like to read the entire article, and it does point out some interesting challenges with changes going on in healthcare. Everyone talks about Obama Care, and the many problems it is going to create. The 2.3% tax to the industry is one of the pieces that has my attention. However, a major change that is not talked about much outside the healthcare industry is the purchasing of physician practices.
Over half of all physicians practices have been purchased by hospitals or by practices of over 50 doctors. What happened to David Hubbard, and I can’t help this comment…why isn’t the headline Same Procedure, Over Four Times the Cost? Overlooking the math question, the fact that the price increased by four hundred percent because now a hospital owns the physician should cause some concern.
Hospitals need to cut costs, I understand that. They also invested in physician practices for the purpose of making money, I understand that too. But I don’t know if the doctor was undercharging, or if the hospital is overcharging, but this sure doesn’t feel right to me.
Read the Wall Street Journal Article here.
J. Robert Saron
President
Bovie Medical Corporation
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
