Greedy Trial Lawyer
AMA Awakens To Insurance Scam Of Unprompt Payments
Category: Seeing Clearly Now
The American Medical Association (AMA) is beginning to believe health insurance carriers are intentionally complicating and delaying the payment of claims. Has the AMA been brain-dead for the last 20 years?
AMA To Congress: Stop Unfair Business Practices Of Health Insurers
"The AMA urges Congress to pass legislation that will:-- Establish a strong federal prompt pay standard;
-- Protect more robust prompt pay state laws by ensuring the federal standard is the "floor"
"Small physician practices have limited leverage relative to large insurance companies since antitrust laws prevent physicians as a group from addressing payment and other contract terms on a level playing field."The ability of physicians to address unfair payment practices continues to diminish with the increasing consolidation of health insurers. In the majority of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, a single health insurer dominates the market.
"The growing disparity in negotiating positions has created an environment where insurers are able to evade prompt payment laws with little, if any, adverse consequence. This has a financially debilitating effect on small physician practices and could limit patient access.
"When one side has all the market power, more efficient market mechanisms are hampered. A common problem confronted by many physicians is insurers paying claims late. Even if a claim includes all the appropriate information, insurance companies often find reasons to delay or deny payment. This is tantamount to small physician practices extending interest free loans to large insurance companies.
"In addition, this, seemingly intentional behavior by the insurer, creates an onerous administrative burden. Physicians and their staff must spend hours on the phone pursuing payment of unpaid claims. In fact, growing numbers of physician practices have been forced to hire office staff dedicated solely to collecting late payments."
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.greedytriallawyer.com/admin/mt-tb.cgi/669