Houston Medical Center Observation

We spent 3 days at the Baylor School of Medicine recently attending meetings. This is located in the center of the Medical district along with MD Anderson and many others. The Observation is all these beautiful buildings operate at a 20% utilization rate as compared to a competitive industry. I have been in many large cities around the world and the flow of people is startlingly different than the sedate pace of the Med District. Utilization is an important driver of cost. The problem with high Medical cost is not located at the local town clinics dealing with medicare fixed pricing. The problem is the lack of competition among the large med corporations. Has anybody ever seen a hospital advertize based on price to the patient. Same thing with Pharmacy, laboratory and most durable med equipment.

pops