| Course | BUS 532 Healthcare Marketing |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Health care pricing and access paper |
| Length | About 1,087 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for BUS 532 Module 5
One Price, Posted Before Surgery: Bundled Cash Pricing, Access and Value at a Physician-Owned Surgery Center
Student Name
MBA Program, Aspen University
BUS 532: Healthcare Marketing
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
One Price, Posted Before Surgery: Bundled Cash Pricing, Access and Value at a Physician-Owned Surgery Center
Heartland Surgical Center, a composite outpatient surgery center in Kansas City owned by eight orthopedic, hand and general surgeons, performs about 6,500 procedures a year in four operating rooms. Most of its patients are insured, and the center's prices are negotiated with each insurer. In the past two years, its insured volume has flattened as health systems in the region steered patients to their own facilities, while calls from patients asking what surgery would cost have tripled. Many of these callers have high-deductible plans or no insurance. The surgeons are considering posting all-inclusive cash prices for common procedures and marketing them to self-pay patients and employers. This paper analyzes the decision.
How Health Care Prices Usually Work
Reinhardt (2006) described the pricing of hospital services in the United States as chaos behind a veil of secrecy. Hospitals maintain chargemasters, lists of official charges that few payers actually pay, and negotiate separate discounts with each insurer, so the same service has many prices. Uninsured patients were historically billed at full charges, the highest prices of all. Patients rarely know a price before treatment, and they typically receive separate bills from the facility, surgeon, anesthesiologist and others. This system makes comparison almost impossible and leaves patients unable to judge value.
How Much Prices Vary
Cooper et al. (2019), using claims data from a large set of privately insured patients, found that hospital prices for the same procedures varied enormously both across and within regions, and that prices were substantially higher at hospitals that faced fewer competitors. Spending on the privately insured varied across regions mainly because of price, not quantity of care. For Heartland, the finding means that its prices, set without hospital overhead and in a competitive outpatient setting, are likely far below what many patients and employers currently pay for the same procedures at hospital outpatient departments.
Do Patients and Payers Respond to Price
Price transparency matters only if people act on it. Robinson and Brown (2013) studied the California Public Employees' Retirement System's reference pricing program for hip and knee replacement, which set a maximum amount the plan would pay and required members who chose more expensive hospitals to pay the difference. They found that members shifted substantially toward lower-priced hospitals and that higher-priced hospitals reduced their prices, lowering the plan's spending without evidence of worse outcomes. Employers and patients, when given a visible price and a reason to care, respond.
Designing the Bundles
Heartland will post bundled prices for seven procedures it performs frequently and predictably.
Each bundle includes the surgeon's fee, anesthesia, facility charges, routine implants and supplies, a post-operative visit within 30 days and one set of crutches or a brace where needed. It excludes pre-operative imaging and lab work, which are priced separately and listed, and treatment of complications that require hospital admission. A complication managed at the center or in follow-up visits within 30 days is included at no extra charge, which gives the center a financial reason to keep complications low.
| Procedure | Bundled cash price | Typical hospital outpatient range quoted to self-pay callers |
|---|---|---|
| Knee arthroscopy with meniscus repair | $5,900 | $9,000 to $18,000 |
| Carpal tunnel release | $2,700 | $4,500 to $9,000 |
| Rotator cuff repair | $8,400 | $14,000 to $26,000 |
| ACL reconstruction | $9,800 | $16,000 to $30,000 |
| Inguinal hernia repair | $4,600 | $7,000 to $15,000 |
| Gallbladder removal, laparoscopic | $6,200 | $10,000 to $22,000 |
| Trigger finger release | $2,100 | $3,500 to $7,500 |
Access for Self-Pay and High-Deductible Patients
Posted prices help only if patients can pay them. Heartland will offer a no-interest payment plan over twelve months for balances above $2,000 and a 5% discount for payment before surgery. A patient financial coordinator will review each caller's insurance to determine whether using insurance or the cash price would cost the patient less, since for some insured patients with high deductibles the cash price is lower than their share under insurance.
Access for Employers
Self-insured employers pay their employees' claims directly. Heartland will offer the same bundled prices to regional employers through direct contracts, with the employer waiving the employee's deductible for procedures done at Heartland. The center will market to employers through benefits consultants and the regional business coalition, emphasizing predictable costs and outcome reporting.
Communicating the Prices
Prices will be posted on the center's website, each with a plain-language description of what is included, a list of excluded services with their separate prices and the name of each surgeon who performs the procedure. A patient who calls will speak with the financial coordinator, not an automated line, and will receive a written quote within one business day after a surgeon confirms that the procedure is appropriate. Primary care physicians in the region will receive a one-page summary they can share with uninsured patients. The message will be factual: one price, known before surgery, with no separate bills. Advertising will avoid comparisons with named hospitals and will not imply that lower prices mean better care.
Why Physicians Own the Risk
The bundles shift financial risk from patients to the center. If a case takes longer than expected or a patient needs an extra follow-up visit, the center absorbs the cost. This risk is manageable because the selected procedures are common and predictable, and because the surgeons themselves control most of the variation in cost. It also aligns the surgeons' incentives with careful patient selection and efficient care.
Value, Not Just Price
To avoid competing on price alone, Heartland will publish a quality report for each bundled procedure: the surgeons' board certification and annual volume, the rate of unplanned hospital transfers, infection rates and patient-reported recovery measures. Price and quality information will appear together on the website and in employer materials.
Risks and Safeguards
Price marketing in health care carries risks. Patients might choose surgery they do not need because it is affordable, so every bundled procedure will require a documented clinical indication and a consultation before scheduling. Some patients may not be suitable for outpatient surgery; the center will screen for risk and refer those patients elsewhere regardless of price. Health systems may respond by lowering their own cash prices, which would benefit patients and test whether Heartland's value message holds.
Conclusion
Health care prices are usually hidden, highly variable and inflated by market power. A physician-owned surgery center with lower costs can serve self-pay patients and employers by posting all-inclusive bundled prices, provided it defines each bundle carefully, offers payment options, reports quality alongside price and keeps clinical need ahead of marketing.
References
Cooper, Z., Craig, S. V., Gaynor, M., & Van Reenen, J. (2019). The price ain't right? Hospital prices and health spending on the privately insured. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(1), 51-107. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjy020
Reinhardt, U. E. (2006). The pricing of U.S. hospital services: Chaos behind a veil of secrecy. Health Affairs, 25(1), 57-69. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.25.1.57
Robinson, J. C., & Brown, T. T. (2013). Increases in consumer cost sharing redirect patient volumes and reduce hospital prices for orthopedic surgery. Health Affairs, 32(8), 1392-1397. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0188
BUS 532 Module 5 instructions, in plain terms
BUS 532's catalog entry is about bending marketing to fit how health care is bought and paid for, and in this module that usually means deciding how a provider sets prices, tells patients about them and widens access. The exact Module 5 wording is in your classroom; this example applies the topic to bundled cash pricing. Explain how health care prices are typically set and why patients struggle to compare them, using research. Describe the target customers for a pricing strategy and what they value. Design the pricing in detail, including what is included and excluded. Consider access, especially for patients who are uninsured or have high deductibles. Present evidence on how patients and payers respond to price information. Address the risks of competing on price, including quality and patient safety, and how they will be managed.
Inside the BUS 532 Module 5 example
The paper begins with Heartland Surgical Center, eight surgeons and four operating rooms, where insured volume has stagnated while self-pay inquiries have risen. Reinhardt's Health Affairs article explains chargemaster prices and negotiated rates. Cooper and coauthors' Quarterly Journal of Economics study documents wide variation in hospital prices for the same procedures and higher prices in concentrated markets. Robinson and Brown's Health Affairs study shows that when an employer capped what it would pay for joint replacement, patients shifted toward lower-priced hospitals and higher-priced hospitals cut prices. A table lists seven bundles with prices and inclusions. Sections cover exclusions and complications, payment options for self-pay patients, direct contracts with self-insured employers and a quality report. Risks include patients choosing on price alone and complications outside the bundle, and safeguards follow.
Reading the BUS 532 Module 5 grading rubric
Health care pricing papers in an MBA course are marked on accurate explanation of how prices work, use of evidence on price variation and consumer response, careful design of the pricing offer and attention to quality and ethics. Listed charges, insurer-negotiated rates and cash prices are kept distinct, and the example then draws on Cooper and colleagues' Quarterly Journal of Economics study and Reinhardt's Health Affairs article to show why posted bundled prices are rare and valuable. Robinson and Brown's Health Affairs study provides evidence that patients and payers respond when prices are visible. The bundle table states what each price includes, which is the detail that makes a bundle credible. Judgment shows in the way it names the risks of price-focused marketing in health care and building safeguards, such as surgeon credentials and outcome reporting, into the offer.
BUS 532 Module 5 help from the desk
The most frequent weakness in Module 5 is treating health care pricing like retail pricing. Explain the role of insurers, negotiated rates and chargemaster prices, and why most patients never see a price. Another is designing a price without defining what it covers; a bundle must state its inclusions, exclusions and how complications are handled. Use research to support claims about price variation and how patients respond. Consider different customers, such as uninsured patients, patients with high deductibles and employers, and what each needs. Be careful not to suggest that cheaper care is always better or worse; connect price to evidence of quality. Address access, including payment plans. Finally, note the ethical limits of price marketing in health care, where patients may be vulnerable and clinical need must come first.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
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BUS 532 Module 5 questions, answered
What does BUS 532 Module 5 usually ask for?
Aspen's BUS 532 covers pricing, access and value in this module, so analyzing how a health care organization sets, communicates or improves prices and access is typical. Follow your classroom prompt.
What is a bundled price in health care?
A single price covering all the services for an episode of care, such as the surgeon, anesthesia, facility and routine follow-up, instead of separate bills.
Do patients respond to health care prices?
When prices are visible and patients bear part of the cost, research such as Robinson and Brown's study of reference pricing shows many shift toward lower-priced providers.
Where can I find a free BUS 532 Module 5 sample paper?
The full paper is above: a surgery center's bundled cash prices for seven procedures, with research on price variation and reference pricing, a bundle table and safeguards on quality.
Why do hospital prices vary so much?
Prices are negotiated separately with each insurer and depend heavily on market power, so the same procedure can cost very different amounts in the same city.