Profit Motive Behind Ranking of Hospitals

“Blue Cross Releases Its Roster of Preferred Hospitals” (Jan. 4) implies that “first-tier” and lower-tier hospitals are chosen based on some quality measure rather than, as is more surely the case, their submission to financial arm twisting.

You say also that the motive is, in part, to drive down the costs of health care. But for whom?

I submit that it is to profit Blue Cross and not the customer/patient.

DR. MILTON L. OWENS

San Pedro