there seem to be alternatives for e.g. non emergency surgeries. this organization has prices listed which include follow ups, anesthesiologist, etc. https://su

there seem to be alternatives for e.g. non emergency surgeries. this organization has prices listed which include follow ups, anesthesiologist, etc. https://surgerycenterok.com/pricing/ https://surgerycenterok.com/pricing/ they also seem to have a lower risk of infection compared to the national average: https://surgerycenterok.com/faqs/ https://surgerycenterok.com/faqs/ i'm not sure what could account for that. i was thinking that maybe because they are incentivized to provide the procedure at the baked in rate that there's a strong incentive to get patients out of surgery successfully as best as possible (to free up another bed, etc), but i'm not sure what their demand is like. a more macabre hypothesis is that hospitals don't care much about patients who end up in their own ICU as it's just additional billable coverage, so the precautions aren't as strict.