Here is another example of how barriers limit competition and limit transparency, to the benefit of legacy players in healthcare. The result is complete obfuscation, which protects dominant hospital margins and reduces care, service, and options for patients. Here the Wall Street Journal explains the common deals that hospitals drive with insurers. The most obscure and pernicious of these tactics are called anti-steering clauses, that prevent insurers for guiding their members to less expensive or higher quality hospitals. Some clauses even prevent patients from seeing hospital prices at all. In 2018, this lack of disclosure and lack of transparency is mind boggling. The solution is open transparency, and a culture of competition. The hospitals would be turned on their heads and we would all be better off, as more effective, affordable higher quality innovators enter the market.
Read: Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals That Squelch Competition