Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay Patients as buyers are no longer an "it will happen someday," but a market reality come January 1, 2021. Signs are apparent that market power is shifting from the hospitals as the dominant seller controlling the relationship to the patient as the chief buyer. The CMS January 1, 2021 mandate of the 200 searchable standard procedures with prices on the hospital website will allow the patient more control. In this kind of environment, the patient is king and queen. The hospitals' position in patients' minds will be an amalgamation of expectations and experience along the dimensions of brand, price, quality, experience, and engagement. Why? Because hospitals and health systems have little differentiation. Image by djedj from Pixabay A hospital is a hospital, is a hospital. What value does the hospital or health system bring to physicians and patients? That is the question at hand. And in a buyers' market, it's the only quest...