In their most recent report on Consumer Driven Health Care, the wise physicans of the American Medical Association concluded that "the overall picture that is emerging dispels concerns that CDHC plans attract only the "healthy and wealthy...CDHC is serving as a catalyst for greater price transparency and public awareness of health care costs."
You'll get no argument from me, of course.
So why, then, are these same health care providers knocking on the burgeoning retail-based clinic model? You know the ones: they're found in Sam's Club & Costco, and in your neighborhood pharmacy. They're convenient and affordable; in fact, since most take no insurance, a lot of expensive overhead goes away altogether. Perhaps best of all, they're models of transparency: prices are prominently displayed, and everyone pays the same.
What's not to love?
Well, that's another post; but the point is, institutions that purport to embrace transparency and accountability (and yes, AMA, I'm talkin' to you), shouldn't then be advocating for "prohibitions against advertising that compares the fees of convenient care clinics with those of physicians."
That's just wrong.
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