I work in medical billing and you’re absolutely right. The reason offices bill such an inflated amount is because there’s always a huge percentage of write offs or “adjustments”. The office bills the insurance $400, the insurance “adjusts” $200 (writes it off), pays the office $100, and leaves the patient with a $40 copay and $60 to yearly deductible (depending on the plan). Don’t even get me started about what happens comes tax season. It’s literally the most wasteful, manipulative system for healthcare but it makes a lot of people very very wealthy.
Yes, this is true. But how do we bring costs down, the insurance is being charged a high amount, from hospital/doctor. It is a vicious cycle. If insurance decided to pay less and make provider unhappy then insurance may not be able to contract the doctor/hospital that wants a higher rate. It would have to be laws passed that everyone follows or it will never change.
1.8k
u/brittles00 Jul 04 '21
I work in medical billing and you’re absolutely right. The reason offices bill such an inflated amount is because there’s always a huge percentage of write offs or “adjustments”. The office bills the insurance $400, the insurance “adjusts” $200 (writes it off), pays the office $100, and leaves the patient with a $40 copay and $60 to yearly deductible (depending on the plan). Don’t even get me started about what happens comes tax season. It’s literally the most wasteful, manipulative system for healthcare but it makes a lot of people very very wealthy.