Many are asking my view on the “surprise billing” fix that Congress passed last night. There are many details to review, but put it this way: The stock price of most of the big insurers dropped big-time yesterday. If their shareholders are upset, that's good news! (1/7)
As a former health insurance exec, I know my old colleagues & Wall Street worked hard to make sure this legislation boosted their bottom line. But it appears lawmakers changed it just enough at the last minute to dash the insurers’ hopes of windfall profits. Here’s how: (2/7)
If a previous version of this bill had passed, it would have let insurers slash payment to thousands of doctors in independent practice. This would have sent more physician practices into the arms of big hospital systems. How would this affect patients & consumers? Read on. (3/7)
When hospitals buy physician practices, they can charge more than docs charged when they were independent. And they often tack on a facility fee, which patients have to pay. So the fix that insurers favored would likely have led the cost of physician care to go up. (4/7)
Many physician practices have been gobbled up by big insurers & hospital chains. Sutter (the big hospital system in northern California that AG Xavier Becerra sued because of exorbitant prices) has bought so many physician practices, it now employs 12,000 doctors. (5/7)
And the biggest insurer, UnitedHealth, has been on such a "physician practice buying" binge, it now employs more than 50,000 docs. It’s become the biggest employer of physicians in the country -- which means many of the doctors in its networks work directly for the company! (6/7)
It’s past time that Congress ended “surprise billing." And it appears it did not pass the version backed by big insurers (which are now among the biggest, most profitable companies in the world).
If so, it's good news for the rest of us. (/END)
If so, it's good news for the rest of us. (/END)
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