Are You Bringing Your Own Orange Juice From Home?

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"We spend a lot of money managing a very outdated revenue cycle in the American healthcare industry," he says. "I'm not sure that starting with bringing your own orange juice from home would be the most cost effective way to do it." The U.S. spends $300 billion more than they would spend in other developed nations on health care, experts say.

Steven Lipstein, President and CEO of BJC HealthCare--a $3 billion hospital system in St. Louis, Missouri--talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the economics of hospitals. They discuss pricing, the advantages and disadvantages of specialization in modern medical care, and culture and governance of non-profit hospitals vs. for-profit hospitals. At the end they talk about the positives and negatives of a national health board patterned after the Federal Reserve.