The Surgery Center of Oklahoma's anesthesiologist founders explained to Yahoo Finance how their business model is designed to keep costs down.
Five takeaways:
1. Steven Lantier, MD, and Keith Smith, MD, founded the Surgery Center of Oklahoma in 1997.
2. Surgery Center of Oklahoma promotes price transparency by listing prices of various operations on its website. The ASC's prices have largely remained flat in the past two decades.
3. The Oklahoma City-based ASC doesn't accept insurance. Its pricing methodology is designed to bypass costs associated with hospital and insurer involvement.
4. Typically, the facility charges patients a flat rate for the surgical procedure, plus up to a 15 percent margin for profit.
5. Surgery Center of Oklahoma is part of the Braintree, Mass.-based Phia Group, which is committed to reining in healthcare costs.