When I was at BCBSTX, they had regular board meetings with doctors to discuss insurance/patient matters. I wonder if they stopped doing that. Seems that this would never have been approved by that board.
It seems as though all payers are trying to discover creative ways to avoid reimbursing health care providers. And, the threat of disrupting access to care is very real. For example, many people are now calling EMS to determine if they’re sick enough to go to the emergency department, lest they be exposed to their outrageously high Obamacare deductibles. One universal law of emergency medical care is that “eventually, all chest pain subsides.”
I get that hospitals outsource anesthesia and often their doctors, but I can't even understand what some of these charges are for. Except to inflate the bill of patients with insurance.
I only hope that the hospitals and insurers are as thorough with my cancer biopsies and they are with the wallet biopsy.