Stephen Lipstein is the president and CEO of BJC HealthCare, a $3.1 billion hospital in St. Louis,. He talks about how prices get set and what leeway you have or don't have. Lipstein: "What we end up with on the commercial side is very inflated prices to cover the underpayments from Medicare"
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.