1. Improve price transparency
- Imagine if more surgery centers or hospitals posted prices for procedures. You can check out The Surgery Center of Oklahoma’s full list here.
- Insurers could offer a defined amount of money to a patient for surgery — enough to cover the cost of a procedure in some facilities, or the patient can negotiate with other facilitates that charge higher prices. Reference pricing has proven to be successful for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.
3. Repeal Certificate of Need (CON) laws and increase the supply of health care services
- If medical providers have plans to build or expand an existing health care facility, offer new services, update or purchase major medical equipment, they will most likely have to apply for a “certificate of need” from the Health Planning Development Agency, an arm of North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). CON laws intend to restrain health care costs by preventing duplicative services and proliferation of low-volume facilitates. However, limiting the supply of services upholds artificially high prices and suppresses competition.