Aug 21, 2019
On this episode, my guest is Amy Mecozzi Cho MD, an emergency medicine physician in MN who is passionate about making sure physicians voices are heard, particularly on the issue that is all over the news lately, Surprise (Balance) Billing. This is when the medical group providing the care charges the patient the balance between their fees and the (low) rates the insurance companies will pay. Obviously this is an unfortunate position for patients to be put in and physicians end up taking the financial and perception hits.
As an emergency physician she is
required to take care of anyone who comes into the emergency
department by law, physician oath and ethics, regardless of ability
to pay. However insurance companies do not have to follow the same
rules and can refuse to negotiate adequate reimbursement because
they know physicians are bound by these laws. It’s obviously an
uneven playing field. These entities have also had the ear of
lawmakers and are pushing solutions to Congress that would
negatively impact us. We as physicians are generally too busy to
fight this, but if we don’t the results will be a disaster for
those involved in patient care.
I
encourage you to contact your congressional representative and
senators and make your voice heard on this issue. The current
solution in the Senate is the Benchmark solution and would lead us
to the race to bottom described by Dr. Cho on the show. The New
York (Independent Arbitration) solution is the one that we need to
advocate for. It’s the only real way to reach fair outcomes. The
fact that insurance companies are advocating for the benchmark
solution should tell you as physicians how it will be for
you.
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Here is an article that goes over the solutions
in more detail: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190708.627390/full/
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