Strome Business Minute With Dr. Jeff Tanner

I’m Jeff Tanner, Dean of the Strome College of Business at Old Dominion University and this is a Strome Business Minute. Only a little more than twenty percent of America’s hospitals are for-profit, a fact that doesn’t seem to affect health care costs. In fact, hospitals account for more than four times the cost of health care than do prescriptions. President Trump’s administration just finalized a rule that requires all hospitals to provide greater pricing transparency, and no, hospital administrators are not happy. But such transparency is necessary for competition, and greater competition should drive costs down. Indeed, hospitals have been merging at an increasing rate to achieve economies of scale and stronger negotiating power with insurers, but these mergers have also created markets with little or no competition. Transparency by itself won’t matter if there are no competitors. To learn more, visit odu.edu/business. This has been a Strome Business Minute, presented by the Strome College of Business at