|
medpundit |
||
 |
 |
|
Friday, May 23, 2003The settlement calls for Aetna to pay $100 million to doctors, an average of about $142 each, as well as $20 million to establish a foundation aimed at reducing medical errors, childhood obesity, and racial disparities in treatment. Aetna also would pay up to $50 million in plaintiffs' legal fees. Physicians also would gain an estimated $300 million over several years from the changes Aetna has agreed to make in systems to speed up payments to doctors and eliminate cuts to reimbursements that may have been made under the previous systems. Looks like Aetna can afford it: The company reported a $330 million net profit in this year's first quarter. I'm always a little stunned by those enormous health insurance profits. When you consider that the service they provide is taking the consumer's money and using it to pay a group of people's medical bills, the fact that they've got so much left over at the end of the day means that most people are giving to insurance companies far in excess of their healthcare needs. That might be understandable if people were paying to insure against a catastrophe. Catastrophes are infrequent but devastating when they happen. And companies who insure against catastrophe are taking huge risks, and so perhaps justify a sizeable profit. But insurance companies like Aetna cover even mundane healthcare needs. Wouldn't the average person be better off just paying for their own day to day medical care and reserving insurance for medical catastrophe? posted by Sydney on 5/23/2003 07:51:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|
