Scientific Definition
Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.
Plain-English Definition
Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.
Feynman Explanation
The screw costs $2. The compliance theater around it costs $2,000.
Core Principle
Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Hospital group-purchasing and opaque contracting inflate device costs far above marginal cost.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Procurement opacity is a profit pool, not a bug.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The screw costs $2. The compliance theater around it costs $2,000.
Examples
- Identical implants priced 5–10x across hospitals in the same city.
- Procurement opacity is a profit pool, not a bug.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Price transparency mandates. Reference pricing. Direct-from-manufacturer rails.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Price transparency mandates. Reference pricing. Direct-from-manufacturer rails.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
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Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Productivity targets compress visits, raising misdiagnosis and burnout.
A federal mandate intended to lower drug costs for the poor became a profit engine for hospitals and contract pharmacies.
Liability exposure pushes clinicians to order tests for legal protection rather than clinical need.
Federal reimbursement rules incentivize cycling seniors through hospitalizations to upgrade billing categories.
Paying providers per procedure rewards more procedures, not better outcomes.
Systems paid per filled bed have weak incentives to invest in prevention or community health.
Opaque billing rules create lucrative work for administrators and revenue-cycle firms instead of care.
Insurers profit when claims are denied, delayed, or abandoned.
Sales bonuses and prescriber relationships fueled mass over-prescription and an addiction crisis.
Federal incentives meant for neglected diseases get used to privatize widely available medicines.
Drug companies optimize for high-margin chronic conditions, not cures.
Specialists earn more for procedures than primary care for prevention.