US health care
Sep. 25th, 2007 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memelainamy friend ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rockycoloradan points out that there are as many administrators and support staff in the US health system as there are professionals. i agree that this is disturbing.
the huge number of administrative support personnel are due to the complex difficulty of filing insurance claims. any doctor who has an office and a nurse also needs one or two or even three people on the front desk to file insurance claims so the doctor can be paid. the whole business of learning the "coding" for insurance claims is now a graduate or post-graduate subject that people study for over a year to be certified. it is quite possible that the person who files claim papers at the doctor's office will have a higher salary than the nurse or physician's assistant. and that's just WRONG. when the cost of healthcare administration is higher than the cost of healthcare itself, we need to make a drastic change.
i know that the brit's national health system has problems and that people can wait long periods of time for non-emergency surgery, but i still have to admire them. i'll tell my little personal story. some years ago my husband had a serious emergency medical problem while we were visiting the UK. we took him to the emergency room at the local hospital. they took care of him. just that. they took him in, and started medical care. in the end they kept him overnight in the hospital. while sitting in the waiting room, i tried talking to various people about looking at our insurance cards, or finding out about billing, or even accepting some money from us. finally, the staff got a little tired of me and had one of the nice "pink lady" volunteers take me aside, give me a cup of tea, and explain quite kindly that they were a HOSPITAL, they did medical care. they were not ACCOUNTANTS, they did not do money. there was no place in the hospital where you could pay money or anyone could accept money. there was no billing. she pointed to a poster near the door with an address for, i believe, st. john's ambulance company and told me that if i really wanted to give someone some money i could mail them a fiver.
this whole attitude deeply impressed me. how much money would we as a nation save if we forgot the whole insurance and eligibility and processing bit and just paid for medical care? certainly, there would be some fraud, some overpayment, but could it possibly add up to the amount that we are paying in overhead and processing of insurance?
rockycoloradan points out that there are as many administrators and support staff in the US health system as there are professionals. i agree that this is disturbing.the huge number of administrative support personnel are due to the complex difficulty of filing insurance claims. any doctor who has an office and a nurse also needs one or two or even three people on the front desk to file insurance claims so the doctor can be paid. the whole business of learning the "coding" for insurance claims is now a graduate or post-graduate subject that people study for over a year to be certified. it is quite possible that the person who files claim papers at the doctor's office will have a higher salary than the nurse or physician's assistant. and that's just WRONG. when the cost of healthcare administration is higher than the cost of healthcare itself, we need to make a drastic change.
i know that the brit's national health system has problems and that people can wait long periods of time for non-emergency surgery, but i still have to admire them. i'll tell my little personal story. some years ago my husband had a serious emergency medical problem while we were visiting the UK. we took him to the emergency room at the local hospital. they took care of him. just that. they took him in, and started medical care. in the end they kept him overnight in the hospital. while sitting in the waiting room, i tried talking to various people about looking at our insurance cards, or finding out about billing, or even accepting some money from us. finally, the staff got a little tired of me and had one of the nice "pink lady" volunteers take me aside, give me a cup of tea, and explain quite kindly that they were a HOSPITAL, they did medical care. they were not ACCOUNTANTS, they did not do money. there was no place in the hospital where you could pay money or anyone could accept money. there was no billing. she pointed to a poster near the door with an address for, i believe, st. john's ambulance company and told me that if i really wanted to give someone some money i could mail them a fiver.
this whole attitude deeply impressed me. how much money would we as a nation save if we forgot the whole insurance and eligibility and processing bit and just paid for medical care? certainly, there would be some fraud, some overpayment, but could it possibly add up to the amount that we are paying in overhead and processing of insurance?
