Oklahoma City Hospital Posts Surgery Prices Online; Creates Bidding War

“The key to this is really about empowering employees.” Kempton Group President and CEO J. Wayne Kempton said.

Some Hospital administrators accuse the surgery center of cherry-picking the healthiest and wealthiest patients.

Oklahoma Hospital Association President, Craig Jones, supports transparency in theory.

Jones calls the issue “complicated” and does not expect major metro hospitals to offer online price menus in the future.

“Where we can reveal information that’s meaningful to the patient, we very much support that; that’s what hospitals need to do,” Jones said. “The difficulty when you compare hospitals with surgery centers is that surgery centers, most of the work they do are elective procedures which are a bit more predictable.”

The difference in price is staggering.

News Channel 4’s Ali Meyer obtained bills from the metro’s three largest medical centers: Mercy Medical Center, Integris Baptist Medical Center and OU Medical Center.

• Mercy Hospital charged $16, 244 for a breast biopsy; the procedure will cost $3,500 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
• OU Medical Center billed $20,456 for the open repair of a fracture; the procedure will cost $4,855 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
• OU Medical Center billed $21,556 for a gall bladder removal surgery; the procedure will cost $5,865 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
• OU Medical Center billed $23,934 for an ankle arthroscopy; the procedure will cost $3,740 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.
• Integris Baptist billed $37,174 for a hysterectomy; the surgery costs $8,000 at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.

“I think there’s a tendency to over-simplify the issue of price transparency but there’s no doubt that hospitals are and need to be more accountable to the public,” Jones said. “To try to make the services and the businesses that they carry out more understandable.”

According to the hospital association, about half of Oklahoma’s hospitals are losing money.

However, the metro’s largest hospitals, which are building free-standing emergency rooms and satellite facilities, are not on that list.

“The ‘haves’ seem to be doing a little bit better and the ‘have-nots’ seem to be doing a little bit worse,” Jones said.

However prices may be dropping because of the transparency at Surgery Center of Oklahoma.

As patients are demanding price-matching, some hospitals relent.

“Hospitals are having to match our prices because patients are printing their prices and holding that in one hand and holding a ticket to Oklahoma City in the other hand and asking that hospital to step up,” Dr. Smith said. “So we’re actually causing a deflationary effect on pricing all over the United States.”

The economics are not simple.

But for patients who are finding ways to save on medical care, that seems to be all that matters.

Integris Baptist responded to this story with the following statement:

It is difficult to compare two bills, even for the same procedure, without taking into account a person’s general health, age, weight, medical history, lifestyle, blood type, religious preferences, pre-existing conditions both known and unknown and possible complications; all of which contribute to the final charge.

---

Video: Trump Greets Fallen Heroes at Dignified Transfer for Troops Killed in Iran Conflict

---

GOP rallies around Thune after White House says Trump’s patience is ‘running out’

---

Six-figure private security bill for top Dem Senate hopeful fuels GOP hypocrisy claims

---

Former Biden Admin Official Roasts Kamala’s 2028 Chances on Fox News: ‘She Follows’

---

Defense industry leaders align with Trump admin plans in closed-door strategy session on Iran war funding

---

Justice Department withdraws subpoenas to New York Times reporters

---

Nancy Guthrie mystery: ‘Today’ show intruder sparks security shakeup at NBC studio

---

WATCH: ‘Shocking’ Ben Franklin smear leaves Smithsonian chief with ‘no regrets’

---

Former CIA Director James Woolsey, Who Served Under Clinton and Later Advised Trump, Dies at 84

---

Vance Boelter sentenced for shootings of Minnesota lawmakers and spouses

---

Montana Teen Says God Coached Him As He Used a Lasso Rope to Save Man from Drowning

---

Dem Rhode Island lawmaker threatens ICE: ‘Your day of reckoning will come m—– f——‘

---

Fox News ‘Antisemitism Exposed’ Newsletter: Why Fetterman called Mamdani a ‘clown’

---

Joe Rogan says ex-con guest allegedly killed man, hid dismembered remains month after podcast

---

Illegal Alien Released Into US by Obama Administration Charged with Killing 3 in Hit-and-Run

---

Instead of offering a generic price list for medical procedures wework individually with patients to determine their financial responsibility.Through our Consumer Price Line patients can obtain charge information in advance on a variety of procedures and services offered at any INTEGRIS Health facility throughout the state of Oklahoma. This is done on a case-by-case basis taking into account insurance payments and self-pay discounts. Financial counselors are also available to help patients who may need to make payment arrangements or obtain other financial assistance to meet their obligations.

The INTEGRIS Price Line phone number is available to consumers from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday at 405-713-4500 or toll Free 877-313-4500.

Story cited here.

Share this article:

Facebook

Twitter