TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Insurers Graded By Doctors

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: June 17, 2008

CHICAGO - Some health insurance companies rate doctors on their performance. Now doctors are turning the tables.

The American Medical Association issued its first health insurance report card at the group's annual meeting Monday. The primary focus is on how quickly and accurately doctors get paid.

"Physicians are spending 14 percent of their total revenue to simply obtain what they've earned," said William Dolan, an AMA board member.

The report card is an effort to reduce the cost of claims processing to doctors and help them as they negotiate contracts with insurance companies, he said. The report card will help patients if it reduces wasteful administrative costs, Dolan added.

The report card compares Medicare and seven national commercial health insurers on the timeliness and accuracy of claims processing. It is based on a random sample drawn from 3 million claims.
United Healthcare had the lowest rate of contract compliance, according to the AMA report. About 62 percent of medical services billed were paid by United Healthcare at the contracted rate, compared with 71 percent for Aetna and 98 percent for Medicare.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT