AMA issues report card on health insurers

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, June, 2008 | by Jane M. Von Bergen Inquirer Staff Writer

America's doctors say the way they are getting paid needs to be cured. Billing rules are too complex and unevenly applied. Payments are slow, denials are frequent, and the result is too much time and money spent trying to get paid. The American Medical Association launched a new initiative yesterday called "Cure for Claims" and along with it, a report card that compares how quickly and accurately the nation's largest health insurers reimburse doctors.

While no one may be moaning because his doctor doesn't get paid quickly enough, the doctors' expenses in trying to get properly reimbursed add an unnecessary burden to a stressed health-care system in which costs are rising faster than inflation. Some doctors spend up to 14 percent of their revenue trying to get paid, the...