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medpundit |
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Tuesday, November 11, 2003I'm probably more sympathetic to the hospitals now that I'm in solo practice than I would have been a couple of months ago as an employed physician. I have a better idea now who is and who isn't paying me for my services. The insurance companies aren't. Medicare isn't. A lot of my affluent Medicare patients who travel to Florida every winter aren't paying their portion. But my on-the-edge-of-poverty-widowed-alcoholic Medicare patient is. My single working mother with no insurance coverage is. I have the sense that this comment from Dr. Parker's November 6 post is spot on: I participated in a study at our institution where we tracked the percentage of collections. It was surprising to see that the uninsured actually paid a significantly greater percentage of their bills when compared to those with insurance. Rough numbers revealed that collections from insurance companies were about 47%, while collections over time from the uninsured were over 80%. The practice of calling patients no-pays, because they don’t have insurance, was not supported by the numbers. Although I'm sympathetic to the hospitals, right now, I'd like to throw the insurance companies in debtors' prison. posted by Sydney on 11/11/2003 04:40:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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