“When people or companies live off of opacity, there is a problem as one never knows if they are being treated fairly or not” – Mike Dendy
When I first started working while in HS and College, my Godfather, whom I idolized, said, “Michael, you never want to have to back up to the pay window”. He was telling me that if I did a good weeks work I should shake the owners hand and know that I earned what I was being paid. The contrary also being true.
When people or companies live off of opacity, there is a problem as one never knows if they are being treated fairly or not. We are going to see more movement in healthcare like is going on in California with the state stepping in and creating their own regulations. California is correct to do so.
The worst offenders in the transparency/opacity wars are the BUCAs and Hospitals. If they are delivering value they should not have to back up to the pay window. The fact that they hide fees and promote discounts that they know are an illusion is proof positive that they are not providing value and thus have to be removed from the buying continuum.
To be clear, no employer will ever achieve a reasonable healthcare value when they don’t have a clear understanding regarding what they are buying and how much they are paying for services benchmarked against an understandable point of comparison. Employers and brokers should not be afraid to demand transparency.
