S1 Ep168: Same procedure, 12 times the price: U.S. Women's Health Alliance sounds the alarm
About this episode
The episode discusses the significant cost disparity in healthcare procedures and its impact on independent medical practices.
The same low-risk procedure can cost five to 12 times more in a hospital outpatient department than in a physician's office. That gap is giving hospitals the money to recruit physicians out of independent practice, and in growing parts of the country there is no independent practice left to choose. Medical Economics Senior Editor Richard Payerchin sat down with three advocates working with the U.S. Women's Health Alliance: Jack Feltz, M.D., the Alliance's president and a founding member; Rebecca Herrero, M.D., MBA, FACOG, president and CEO of Women's Health Associates of Southern Nevada; and Daniel B. Frier, Esq., co-founder and co-managing partner of Frier Levitt. They walk through the Independent Medical Practice Sustainability and Patient Access Act, the Stark and Anti-Kickback definitions the bill would tighten, and the counterintuitive core of their proposal: pay physicians more for office-based procedures and total cost of care goes down. Feltz and Herrero also make the case for why they're on Capitol Hill instead of in an exam room, when going hospital-employed would almost certainly pay them better. Music Credits: Elegant Jazz by Nadezhda Pilitskaia - stock.adobe.com A…
People in this episode
Host: Richard Payerchin
Guests: Jack Feltz, M.D., Rebecca Herrero, M.D., MBA, FACOG, Daniel B. Frier, Esq.
Topics covered
- healthcare costs
- independent practice
- medical economics
- legislation
- physician recruitment
- patient access
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: U.S. Women's Health Alliance, Women's Health Associates of Southern Nevada, Frier Levitt
More episodes of Off the Chart: A Business of Medicine Podcast
- S1 Ep169: What most physicians get wrong about direct primary care, with Josh Umbehr, M.D.
- S1 Ep167: What your practice is actually worth, with Andy Colbert of Ziegler
- S1 Ep166: Considering concierge? Know the legal traps first, with Ericka Adler, J.D.
- S1 Ep165: The four forces reshaping physician pay, with Tynan Kugler of PYA
- S1 Ep164: Pay is up, productivity is down. Is it sustainable? With Andy Swanson of MGMA
- S1 Ep163: What physicians need to know about Medicare's new obesity drug coverage, with Tracy Zvenyach, Ph.D., M.S., RN, of the Obesity Action Coalition
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