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> IMO, the most fascinating thing about this report is that it exposes a fight between two groups: 1) traditional health insurance companies 2) private equity b
by burnte 7y ago
> IMO, the most fascinating thing about this report is that it exposes a fight between two groups: 1) traditional health insurance companies 2) private equity backed provider groups, both of whom would be opposed to universal single payer healthcare as a right.
As someone who works in a PE backed healthcare provider, I can assure you that we are not opposed to single payer. Some are, but they're mostly in spaces that provide out-of-network coverage or other services that are still "bill what you want and argue about it later" spaces that are rapidly disappearing. OON services are increasingly difficult and are generally covered by single-case-agreements which are negotiated either before service is rendered, or at the very beginning of the treatment process.
Single payer is welcomes by a wide swath of PE back healthcare because it would reduce our costs DRAMATICALLY and provide predictability that currently we do not have. It used to be there were small changes in what insurers would cover from year to year, but now the changes are potentially HUGE and we have to adjust much more quickly.
We pay gobs of money to departments filled with people who have to manually verify patient benefits, validity of insurance, continually monitor the patient progress to make sure we're fulfilling the various metrics each insurer sets that varies according to the patient's plan, audit each bill to make sure everything is coded correctly to avoid a typo getting an entire claim rejected (which then we have to resubmit), then once we bill it to the insurer there's the game of nagging them to pay claims they approved weeks ago.
Single payer would eliminate almost all of that. We'd know everyone was covered. We'd know what is reimbursable and not. We'd have one set of rules for all patients, one set of metrics to adhere to. One source to bill, and one source to track payments from. Literally 20% of my company's staff is just for those things. Not to mention how much time our medical staff would save by having a single set of rules to work under.
PE firms are in healthcare to try to leverage economies of scale to make the money side more efficient, and thus increase margins. A stable environment is good for any business. We work hard to make things as efficient as we can, and reducing the massive overhead attached to just making money would be a great efficiency. Single payer would be great news for the industry.
- danans 7y agoWell, TIL something about private equity backed healthcare providers, at least the kind you work at. FWIW everything you're saying makes sense to me personally since I used to do medical billing more than 25 years ago, and I clearly remember how disastrously complex it was for seemingly no reason. One of my first jobs was sitting in an office full of medical procedure face sheets, spending all day calling doctors offices to get billable diagnosis codes for procedures. The question I have is whether the medical provider community is ready to stand up for single payer, if only on the rationale you explained. That would go a long way toward convincing segments of the public who do won't support it on human rights grounds alone, but might support it because it makes more business sense.
- burnte 7y agoIt's way worse than when you did it 25 years ago. The reason is the harder it is for us to bill insurers, the less they have to pay. We're only willing to spend so much money in order to get a certain amount. It also discourages patients from seeking care, which keeps costs down. Some doctors are, but not most. Doctors are bad business men, as are lawyers. It's part of their training, they spend years learning how to avoid risks for their patients and clients. Business is risk management, not risk avoidance. So most doctors just try to struggle along as best they can with the current environment rather than rocking the boat. Don't get me wrong, they're not struggling to pay the rent, but running a health care provider is not easy.