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Having patients submit claims would at least bring the insurer into a mode where they need to respond to the people. Right now, the insurers are not responsible to anyone.

I dont disagree with you at all. I was just trying to explain how the executive branch got involved in the first place.

As a certified coder, I need to keep up to date with all new rules and regulations. That doesn't necessarily mean I agree with them.

I think what shot the cost of health care through the roof in the first place was Medicare and other Government interference. People don't realize that the cost of a doctors visit today would be about $10.00 if the physicians could do their jobs and treat people without worring about all on the govermental redtape.If they don't believe Big Brother is watching them, they are delusional.

This is all because somebody thought it would be a good idea years ago to have a third party pay for their healthcare.

What I would really like to know is how expensive an oil change would be today if people demanded that their car insurance paid for that?

Insurance should be just that, insurance against catastrophic finacial loss. Not for the common cold.

I agree with your last posting. With respect to the issue of the cost of a patient visit, the cost of employing billers and staff to phone insurers more than doubles the cost of the primary care office. So, we would have 40-50% less payroll if we had more effective methods of addressing the most common ailments.

For this reason, I see the tremendous overhead in medical documentation and billing as the most obvious area for improved efficiency. Insurers disable growing medical offices and good doctors by simply denying payments. That is blatantly unfair, and it borders on fraud!