Dr. Aaron Carroll: What incentives would you encourage to get people to sometimes take a chance and avoid those technologies? How does a hospital decide to acquire the latest cutting edge technology? Is it the legal environment you're in? The insurers' willingness to pay for it? Is it negotiated? He says, "I think it's one of the greatest things about our medical system but it's very expensive"
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.