Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPerhaps I’m turning into a crusty old man. IBJ’s Jan. 24 article “Health care bills unlikely to remedy cost crisis” struck a nerve. It states that “increasing health care costs are resulting in fewer dollars for employee raises … and higher premiums for employees.” You think? I own a small construction company. In the past five years our health care costs have increased $1.43 per hour; a 30% increase since 2015. For 2020, we were hit with another 10% increase. A company simply cannot absorb those increases and remain competitive.
One bill being considered in Indiana is legislation to end the practice of surprise billing, which allows in-network providers to pass on out-of-network prices if they cannot supply an in-network service. Unbelievable. This is analogous to my company agreeing with an in-network provider to complete their project for an agreed sum, but at the time of construction we substitute unannounced higher cost materials and/or labor (with our mark up of course) and pass it on in the form of a change order. Do you think they would stand for that? Of course not. Yet surprise billing is a commonly accepted practice. What in heaven’s name are legislators waiting for (surely not campaign contributions from health care providers).
The article goes on to say that legislators are considering an exception to the bill that “would still allow a patient to receive an out-of-network bill … as long as the patient is told about the potential out-of-network cost in advance (five days is one suggestion) and agrees to it in writing.”
Can you imagine a patient getting financially and emotionally ready for a procedure and then being told five days before it is to occur that you will have to pay more or you can postpone the procedure? I have a better suggestion. Require the in-network provider to provide their service at their in-network price, period. The employer, employee and patient have paid their premiums and made their arrangements in good faith. I guarantee you the in-network provider will find a way to provide in-network service rather than eat the cost they have been unfairly passing on to patients; just like the rest of us in business have to do.
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Scott Berline
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Perhaps you should look at the dismantling of the ACA by the Republicans as a reason for fewer participants.
The “Repeal and Replace” movement has forgotten to “replace” the ACA with an alternative.