When the argument is always 'No margin, no mission' there is no limiting factor on what profit-seeking behavior tax-exempt hospitals will engage in. Open a private equity subsidiary? 340B at a clinic in Bevery Hills? Garnish wages for unpaid bills? 'No margin, no mission!'

Story by Erik Galicia Fresno Bee: amp.fresnobee.com/news/local/art…

'It’s time for employers, especially those with geographically concentrated workforce, to consider circumventing insurers and directly contracting with providers.'

Read Ge Bai's thoughts in a recent @forbes piece.

ow.ly/EuOk50RqgGB

Ge Bai Forbes insurers & hospitals have synergistic incentive to allow medical care inflation grow untethered

Hospitals get more money (or can write off more of imaginary 'non-profit' bill) & insurers can seem to sell 'higher discount' to businesses

Ge Bai Forbes Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health BSPH / HPM CMS should have the consent of patients before sharing their data for research. The only reason data should be shared without consent is for the healthcare of the patient. The patients should control their own data and not the government. Patient data is NOT safe on electronic

My latest Forbes: What Prompted CMS To Change Course With Its Data Restrictions?
Johns Hopkins Carey Business School Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health BSPH / HPM forbes.com/sites/gebai/20…

I can’t find a link right now, but I observed several years ago that by paying cash for some tests, I got a >90 percent discount.

Excellent work! I believe the conclusions are spot on.

Ge Bai Forbes I love that you are writing articles about this stuff -- pls keep doing it!

While I generally agree with your conclusion (we should not involve insurance in low cost shoppable services). I dont actually think your paper demonstrates the claim that you are making. An interesting

Ge Bai Forbes Once docs are aware of this and understand how to cut costs—hybrid self-pay practices such as mine are quite sustainable.

Anyone practicing direct care knows that cash pay is cheaper than using insurance.

Ge Bai Forbes Exactly why direct care, transparent bundles, and high-value, high-quality centers (lower cost outpatient/ASC where possible) are gaining traction and have significant ability to address a lot of these issues.

I'm sure Sidney Haitoff would have something to say here too.

Mark Cuban Ge Bai Forbes Love that we need 500 academics and Mark Cuban to tell us that you get a discount for guaranteed, upfront cash payment vs Net-[Insert your AR days here] + the stupid recycle overhead + phantom non-payments

Cash pay medical is the future.

catastrophic coverage only is the future

direct primary care focused on aggressive prevention is the future

RHA will bring all of these to market

Ge Bai Forbes I have prompt access to my Primary Dr for a full year for less than 1/2 the cost of my deductible
In my case cash is not only cheaper but a better value and my Dr is happier

We have been building data dashboards on exactly this since 2016, having the freedom and ability to cash pay within a “network” of direct contracts is liberating! This is how we architect our employer health plans w/$0 services for Members. It works and members are happy. ❤️

Ge Bai Forbes And this is before consideration of the patient deductible, the collection of which is the responsibility of the hospital. The bad debt ratio for hospitals is enormous

Ge Bai Forbes The negotiated price between hospital and insurer is rarely the price paid to the hospital. It is the amount charged to the plan sponsor. The hospital usually gets less. Spread pricing in medical may be worse than they are in pharmacy !

As in pharmacy, the higher the 'retail

The development of cash prices being lower than negotiated prices is necessary context for understanding the rise in hospital prices.

Full text of my article Forbes: Why Are Cash Prices Lower Than Health Insurance Negotiated Prices?

Growing evidence demonstrates a counterintuitive phenomenon in healthcare: the cash price is often cheaper than insurance prices for the same service or product. Cash prices