If I'm a hospital, the price that Blue Shield gets is not the same price as that. Because that's been negotiated. Is it true across? Is the discount off the charge master the same for every item on the charge master or is it individually negotiated? That also varies. So there's 10,000 prices Blue Shield might say, we want a special deal on hip replacement of this kind, this flavor, this variation. Well, I only have a PhD in economics, so I can't understand it either. It's very confusing.
Physician and author Vivian Lee talks about her book The Long Fix with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Lee argues that we can transform health care in the United States, though it may take a while. She argues that the current fee-for-service system incentivizes doctors to provide services rather than keep patients healthy and that these are not the same thing. Topics explored include innovations in Medicare and in technology that might change treatment incentives as well as the weird world of health care pricing.