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Wednesday, August 30, 2006With a few taps on the keyboard, Aetna customers can see how much their doctors are paid by the insurance company for office visits, chest X-rays and flu shots. The insurance giant says that the more information patients have, the better health-care decisions they’ll make, such as not going to the doctor at the first sign of the sniffles. That could save companies millions of dollars. ....Although most people with traditional plans, co-pays or co-insurance might not care what their doctor is paid, Campinha-Bacote said he hopes it will have patients asking questions. 'It would bring to light what the true cost of health care is,' he said. 'Most people think, "It's only costing me $15 or $20.? So, it still helps to educate.' Unless a patient is paying the fee out of their own pocket (and in that case they would already know how much the charge is, wouldn't they?), they're more likely to think they're at least getting their money's worth from their insurance premiums when they go to the doctor than they are to forego a doctor's visit because it's costing their insurance company a little more. Don't you think? posted by Sydney on 8/30/2006 08:09:00 PM 1 comments 1 Comments:For some reason many people think it is okay to screw the insurance company. Besides, I don't really think that people run off to the doctor when they get the sniffles. Most people I know put off going to the doctor as long as possible. If Aetna wants people to be 'fully informed' they should let people know how much money they make investing their premiums, and how much money they've 'saved' by enforcing arbitrary fee-schedule amounts and 'case management' policies. But, knowledge is power, so whatever their intended result, this is probably a good thing.
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