Quote:
Originally Posted by BTM
OT: If you take insurance...how big of a PITA is dealing with insurance companies? Are the insurance rates vs. "street" rates pretty much predetermined? How does collecting work?
|
Docs charge by the amount of work they do; i.e. writing down how much time was spent with the patient, any discharge summaries, how long their notes are on the patient, time spent with family and with other doctors, etc. They also usually have to charge double what they think they earned so that they receive their original payment (ins. companies and Medicare pay half of what is billed, I.e. you charge $500 the ins company pays $250). There are other reasons doctors get paid too but these are the most common reasons. Docs, unless they work for a larger company, usually have a billing company that takes care of payments from insurers and all they have to provide are reports and billing codes. I'm not sure if OB/GYN's work and bill the same way but this is the way physicians and other specialists charge. And usually patients that pay out of pocket never pay what the physician charges in full amount, usually less than 5%. Haha. Docs do a lot of charity work.