California Health Insurance Rescissions: Doctors Dissatisfied

(My last post on a long trail of posts about the history of the California rescissions noted that Insurance Commissioner Poizner seems to have learned that some people actually do lie on their health-insurance applications.)

Organized medicine’s beef with the settlement is that it does not guarantee that doctors be paid. If doctors treated patients whose policies were subsequently rescinded, they’ve been stuck with accounts receivable that they’re unlikely to collect. So, they’ve joined asked the court to dump the settlement with DMHC and squeeze more cash from Blue Cross.

Well, I’ve never read a PPO contract with Anthem Blue Cross, but I’m a little surprised that the doctors haven’t negotiated that the health plan will pay any claims up to the date of rescission. Maybe this has to do with the imbalance of power between health plans and physicians, which I’ve previously addressed.
Nevertheless, a lawsuit certainly seems an unsatisfactory path to resolution. As I’ve written before in this thread, as long as doctors are dependent on insurers, instead of patients, for their incomes, they will be caught up in these unproductive struggles.

Posted by John R. Graham on StateHouseCall.org