After a ProPublica investigation examined how giant insurers and their intermediaries are imposing fees on doctors and hospitals for electronic payment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a bill to end the practice.
After a ProPublica investigation examined how giant insurers and their intermediaries are imposing fees on doctors and hospitals for electronic payment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced a bill to end the practice.
After reading the title I was like “So if they don’t pay the fee, do they just get a cash-stuffed envelope every so often?”
Honestly forgot checks were still a thing that exists. Haven’t seen one in decades…
Yeah but at great delay and many other issues and costs with accepting individual paper checks for payments. Before insurers were forced to start offering electronic payments to practices by the affordable care act, about $4.5 billion a year in additional costs were created by this dumb system. These costs of course get passed on to the patient eventually. They also are one of many ways that traditional private practices are being driven out of business, leaving only these gargantuan health systems where all doctors are employees and have little say in how anything is done.
Of course the affordable care act requirement led insurers to begin offering electronic payments but they started tacking fees on them. So instead of the health care system becoming more efficient and lowering costs as intended this money was getting siphoned into insurance companies pockets.
The sad reality of the US health care system is that there’s already more than enough money in it for patients to get universal coverage and for providers to be paid well. But all these leeches like insurance companies and middlemen drain off enormous sums while adding no real value.
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-hidden-fee-costing-doctors-millions-every-year