I discovered that almost no hospitals had actually worked that out. Once we started doing that, we shared the cost information. And of course, the patient outcomes, guess what? No significant difference. So once we could start to see that it's just like seeing the prices in the grocery store, all of a sudden say, well, you know what, I can get just as good of an outcome for this as that or I can negotiate a better deal with that supplier. It really just changes the economics.
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.