Obamacare is driving the price of surgery higher says NBC news; Check out their article here. What is driving the cost of care higher in the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. While everyone seems to have an opinion, NBC news in their investigative study suggests that consolidation and a lack of marketplace transparency and a true economic responsive marketplace for healthcare services is responsible. The average healthcare inflation appears to hold at 4%, so why are hospitals and surgeons getting 20% or more over what they did 5 years ago. Something is clearly wrong with the fabric of our healthcare system. NBC news seems to have at least some of the answers. The truth is that most doctors, especially primary care, chiropractors, Obstetricians, physical therapists have not received a raise in years and are likely making less than they did 12 years ago, so where is this money really going? Read the article here Surgery Prices Surge With Innovation and Consolidation Under Obamacare BY BILL BRIGGS The price to remove a gall bladder or replace a hip has spiked more than 20 percent during the past five years, according to an analysis of data collected for NBC News. Surgery has bloomed into a $500 billion industry in the United States, where 80 to 100 million procedures are performed annually — a per-capita rate that’s some 50 percent higher than in the European Union, said Dr. John Birkmeyer, a researcher and adjunct professor at the Dartmouth Institute and in the university’s Community & Family Medicine program. The reason? Expensive yet safer technologies and hospital consolidations that create medical monopolies, according to doctors and researchers. For hospitals, surgery is the No. 1 revenue source. That encourages medical center administrators to ensure operating suites remain humming — an assembly-line mentality that can lead to unnecessary procedures and spiraling prices, experts say. “The cost of surgery is growing at a surprising rate,” said Birkmeyer, a leading researcher on healthcare trends. He bases his calculations on national Medicare claims data. A price check on four of the most common procedures reveals the inflationary trends hitting ORs since 2009: Hernia repair, up 16 percent, with a “total fair price” of $5,056, according to Healthcare Bluebook. Gall bladder removal, up 21 percent, with a “total fair price” of $5,532. Hysterectomy, up 19 percent, with a “total fair price” of $11,780. Hip replacement, up 24 percent, with a “total fair price” of $22,606. read more