Nobody Will Tell You the Price. That's the Business Model.
In this monologue, Paul H. Flowers Jr. exposes the deliberate opacity of U.S. hospital pricing. He explains that hospitals maintain a master price list with inflated "sticker" prices, while actual discounts are negotiated behind closed doors and vary depending on the patient’s insurer and the specific contract. He challenges viewers to call a hospital for a raw MRI price and demonstrates how they are transferred repeatedly and never given a clear answer. Flowers highlights that employers who self‑insure (covering about two‑thirds of workers) can see line‑by‑line cost data, revealing the true cost structure. He argues that when buyers finally see transparent prices, market behavior changes, and that the real problem is not the hospital itself but the fog of hidden pricing that benefits intermediaries. He urges the audience to recognize this strategy and demand transparency.
Chapters
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