The current scrutiny of health insurance company billing practices has revealed many questionable practices around billing. But a new one has surfaced that is indeed novel: adding a surcharge for processing a payment that actually saves the insurers money in the first place.
A recent article in the publication Pro Publica revealed that health insurers now impose a fee of 1.5% to 5% on doctors who are paid electronically. The fees are ironic because the same insurers virtually forced doctors to accept electronic payment rather than checks, because electronic payments were cheaper to process.
Technically, the insurers don't extract the fee. Their henchmen – middleman companies that process the payments – began adding the additional fee as part of their "service." Never mind that the insurers were already paying these firms to manage payments. Further, Pro Publica said, the middlemen often share the fees with insurers.
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
