A sign on the wall stated that my Richmond, Virginia doctor's office would no longer accept United Health Care. Curious as to why that could be I decided to have a little off the record chat with the business manager of the firm. Below the fold is what I learned.
Basically, I was told, United Health Care has poor customer service. They do not respond at all to inquiries regarding payment or patients. According to my health provider, United would purposefully drag out the claims until it exceeded their 90 day processing window, at which point the office could no longer collect on the claim. When they would call United Health Care they would get no response. Calls were not returned at all.
If you do not believe that this behavior doesn't drive up the cost of health care for all- then you clearly don't understand the incredible bureaucratic mess that it is to file claims, wait 90 days to get paid, and have to call over and over again for each patient.
Health care companies may be making 20-30% margin doing whatever it is they do. But it costs doctors dearly waiting to get paid.
My doctor's office believes that United was probably trying to hold onto the money as long as possible- that perhaps the delaying tactic was there to get physicians to give up on the claim and pass it on to the consumer. When you are talking billions of dollars- simply making interest off of the money can help offset the claim payout.
This is what an unregulated mess looks like.
I asked the Doctor why then, are so many physicians groups against government health care. He said, I don't know- except for the fact that what it is they plan to do isn't really clear.
And this really is the problem. The groups against it have done a spectacular job creating strawmen and beating them down. Our side? Our side has Max Baucus.
Somewhere Nero is fiddling while Rome burns.