Monday, June 24, 2019

Fixing High Healthcare Costs Should Help Patients And Not Insurance Companies

The Lower Healthcare Costs Act of 2019, introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray would attempt to solve a problem that has attracted considerable attention recently- surprise medical billing.

Another reason why a doctor may be non-par is because insurance companies intentionally keep them off their panels.

Paying non-par physicians based on the Medicare fee schedule gives insurance companies an opportunity to lower reimbursement rates for ALL doctors across the board.

Executive Director, David Hoyt M.D. said, "Surgeons do not want their patients to bear the consequences of narrow networks and other gaps in insurance coverage that leads to surprise medical bills. However, the solutions should not come on the backs of the physicians caring for them." He states that this is a one-sided solution that favors insurance companies and denies physicians the right of conflict resolution.

The very title of this bill - The Lowering Healthcare Costs Act - is a complete misnomer because it will do little to accomplish this goal when physician payments account for only 8 percent of total healthcare spending.

The Trump administration has worked with physicians to generate ideas that would actually tackle the high costs in the healthcare system.

Price transparency, an issue that President Trump strongly supports and is set to issue an executive order to address, would be far more effective in lowering the healthcare cost curve, by giving patients the information that they need to become better consumers.

https://townhall.com/columnists/halscherz/2019/06/24/fixing-high-healthcare-costs-should-help-patients-and-not-insurance-companies-n2548801

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