{"id":15480,"date":"2024-10-28T08:01:57","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T09:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15480"},"modified":"2024-10-28T09:26:10","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T09:26:10","slug":"how-taxpayers-are-helping-health-insurers-make-even-bigger-profits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=15480","title":{"rendered":"How Taxpayers Are Helping Health Insurers Make Even Bigger Profits"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Health insurers have made an enticing pitch to local governments across the country: When your workers see doctors outside your health plan\u2019s network, costs can balloon, but we offer a program to protect against outrageous bills.<\/p>\n

Cities, counties and school districts have signed up, hoping to control the costs of their medical benefits.<\/p>\n

Then come the fees.<\/p>\n

In Shelby County, Tenn., the insurer\u2019s charges for administering the program climbed last year to $1.3 million \u2014 more than the county budgeted this year for long-term disability insurance for all of its roughly 6,000 employees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In Hoboken, N.J., the charges sometimes exceeded the amount paid to doctors for providing treatment. And in a stretch of California\u2019s Central Valley where two counties share a health plan, the fees unexpectedly quintupled in one year to more than a quarter-million dollars, contributing to a plan deficit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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MultiPlan, a data analytics firm, helps insurers reduce payments to doctors, then keeps a portion of the savings for itself.<\/span>Jos\u00e9 A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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From southern Florida to the Pacific Northwest, local governments have paid similar fees, often with little awareness that their taxpayer dollars have become a lucrative revenue stream for some of the nation\u2019s largest insurers, according to a review of documents obtained in two dozen public records requests and interviews with city and county officials and benefits consultants.<\/p>\n

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Health insurers have made an enticing pitch to local governments across the country: When your workers see doctors outside your health plan\u2019s network, costs can balloon, but we offer a program to protect against outrageous bills.Cities, counties and school districts have signed up, hoping to control the costs of their medical benefits.Then come the fees.In Shelby County, Tenn., the insurer\u2019s charges for administering the program climbed last year to $1.3 million \u2014 more than the county budgeted this year for long-term disability insurance for all of its roughly 6,000 employees.In Hoboken, N.J., the charges sometimes exceeded the amount paid to doctors for providing treatment. And in a stretch of California\u2019s Central Valley where two counties share a health plan, the fees unexpectedly quintupled in one year to more than a quarter-million dollars, contributing to a plan deficit.MultiPlan, a data analytics firm, helps insurers reduce payments to doctors, then keeps a portion of the savings for itself.Jos\u00e9 A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York TimesFrom southern Florida to the Pacific Northwest, local governments have paid similar fees, often with little awareness that their taxpayer dollars have become a lucrative revenue stream for some of the nation\u2019s largest insurers, according to a review of documents obtained in two dozen public records requests and interviews with city and county officials and benefits consultants.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15482,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15483,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15480\/revisions\/15483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}