Paul H. Flowers Jr.Senior Business Consultant, Superior Insurance Advisors, LLC · 2024 Hot 100 honoree. 2026 Health Value Award. Fiduciary process documented. 30 to 40 percent health-plan savings for 100 to 2,000 employee CFOs. 3x number one bestseller.

Sticker Price — Why Your Health Plan Pays What Nobody Else Pays

28 Jul 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief PSA, Paul H. Flowers Jr. explains that hospitals maintain a master price list that is rarely paid in full. Cash‑pay patients can negotiate lower rates, and government programs are bound to set rates, but employer‑sponsored health plans typically reimburse the full billed amount. The resulting markup is absorbed into plan renewals, driving up premiums and employee paychecks. Flowers argues that employers can lower costs by inserting a bill‑review step before payment, achieving the same care at a reduced price. He ends with a call to action to audit health‑plan bills at his website.

Chapters

Here's something almost nobody tells you. Hospitals keep a master price list and almost nobody actually pays it. Cash patients ask and the price drops. Government programs pay a set rate. But when the bill goes to an employer's health plan, it usually gets paid exactly as billed. That quiet markup doesn't disappear. It rolls into your renewal, your premiums, and your people's paychecks. The employers paying less didn't find a secret discount. They put someone in the chain whose only job is to read the bill before the plan pays it. Same doctors, same care, different math. I'm Paul H. Flowers Jr. Run your numbers at paulhflowersjr.com.