The best denial management physicians can employ is to deny contracting with third party payers altogether. Just say “no” to them…throw their contracts in the trash.

As a primary care physician who as not accepted insurance for over six years, I receive payment directly from patients at the time of service. If a patient denies me payment, I deny him service from that point forward (that’s not the type of patient I want in my practice anyway – and with over 7000 patients I can’t afford spending any time with patients who are not willing to pay my reasonable fees – usually $40 to $60).

Because I refuse third party payment, I have one-third the overhead and one-third the employees of most primary care physicians (and 1/100th of the headaches).

Americans neither need nor can afford third party payment for routine medical care.

Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night. It’s all the same right? Insurers actually win, you think you win, lawyers make just as much money working for the defense against you ultimately, and oh yeah, the patients (you remember them, right?) lose.

So this MD medical bureaucrat gets to talk to another MD medical bureaucrat about whether the third MD treating the patient gets paid his inadquate sub-market government dictated payment rate for services that he has already delivered. The beauty of is that the two of us who are not treating the patient are working for wage rates that we negotiated and freely agreed to–unlike the poor guy doing the treatment.

Isn’t managed care wonderful! I guess it helps solve the physician surplus problem.

Oh, by the way, this IS for a government program. So much for “single payer” uptopia fantasies.

You might think so but no. Medicare has taken several steps in recent years to lower payments to hospital (observation status and transfer DRGs). And they do retroactively deny payment.

Much simpler when the government gets the bill. There’s no arguing, no delay in payment(otherwise interest is collected).

Doc’s-Have you ever thought of informing your patients that you no longer take insurance? Let the patients deal with getting reimbursed.

CJD, you are so tiresome. Physicians have not “gone to bat” for the insurance companies. We have to go to bat against many enemies, including the insurance companies, and ATLA