retired doc on the FTC’s anti-trust ruling against physicians who band together negotiate with third-party players:
As long as the “negotiation” between third party payers and individual doctors is of the type “here is our offer (based on CMS Medicare numbers),take it or leave it” we have de-facto price controls. Price controls tend to have four consequences: increased demand, decreased supply, poorer quality,and the emergence of a black market. It seems to me that in the medical world of the U.S. we are seeing all but the fourth.
Related posts:
- How price controls in medicine have worked out
- Are government price controls killing hospitals?
- Primary care, supply and demand
- Pfizer attacks government price controls
- Cutting health care costs
- Single payer = physician shortages
- Is supply really to blame for health care costs?
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