Competition forces Swedish Health Services to cut its outpatient prices

While healthcare prices continue to rise across the country, Swedish Health Services in Seattle managed to cut prices for 90 percent of its outpatient services at five hospitals, two ambulatory care centers and 100 clinics in the Puget Sound area, according to a Heartland Institute report. Prices were cut by an average of 35 percent earlier this year. Heartland says the reductions were due to competitive pressures after Washington State lawmakers passed two bills to make providers reveal the costs of procedures. "Providers of services, whether it's healthcare or cell phones, will reduce prices when they know consumers have real choices and can take their business elsewhere, not when people's options are restricted or limited by federal law," Paul Guppy, research director of the Washington Policy Center, told the Institute. Read the full article at FierceHealthFinance