It always is the "Insurer". The middle man mafia that has no reason to exist between a Doctor and Patient except for Catastrophic situations as all insurance should be. But not in America. We pay a heavy price for that.
Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
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Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#12IMO they're blaming the wrong group for the issue though. Financial transactions should not cost much more than compute + software they run on. This is one angle where I actually respect a portion of the crypto community -- they've called out some things that were stagnant in the financial sector. Of course it remains to be seen if they can come up with viable alternatives, but agreeing on a problem is a good step fo…
> Financial transactions should not cost much more than compute + software they run on. The fees aren't pure profit for financial institutions. Its used to subsidize consumer protections like fraud prevention and reversal. > This is one angle where I actually respect a portion of the crypto community Is there a portion of crypto platforms that don't take in fees?
Any crypto platform that doesn't charge a fee will be swamped (even more) with spam transactions along with all those who validate that chain.
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#13IMO they're blaming the wrong group for the issue though. Financial transactions should not cost much more than compute + software they run on. This is one angle where I actually respect a portion of the crypto community -- they've called out some things that were stagnant in the financial sector. Of course it remains to be seen if they can come up with viable alternatives, but agreeing on a problem is a good step fo…
I mean, sure they talk big, but isn't one of the largest complaints against crypto the fact that transaction fees are high [0,1,2] and processing times are long [3]? [0] https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-and-its-many-fees-what-t... [1] https://www.investopedia.com/tech/how-much-does-it-cost-buy-... [2] https://www.makeuseof.com/crypto-exchange-fees-explained/
Btw, you’re missing [3]
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#14As an European it is unbelievable with the kind of crap Americans need to deal with. I would expect the bank to apply a microscopic transfer fee and that's it, not a normal company deciding an arbitrary insane percentage fee. It really feels like everything is trying to nickel and dime you guys over there.
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#15Looks like it may be cheaper to hire a guy to go around town and collect checks. Maybe that’s a startup idea there.
I could already see the scenario there. The startup gets very successful and entrenches itself as this middleman. Eventually someone figures out that this cheque system is dumb and everything should be digital by default. The startup then starts lobbying and further locks in the archaic cheque system.
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#16I am reminded by this story of the Canadian health care billing system.
The government would pay doctors an additional 1% of the bill if it was submitted one month late. One billing software vendor had a flag to specify that bill should be sent late - and I think that it defaulted to "yes".
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#17Surely the govt should step in and say that if you are charging extra for electronic vs paper, that's illegal?
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#18Would love to see doctors and medical facilities nationwide convert, en masse, to paper checks. Let's see how quickly the insurers back off the fees.
They would absolutely love it. Paper checks extend their accounts payable.
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#19IMO they're blaming the wrong group for the issue though. Financial transactions should not cost much more than compute + software they run on. This is one angle where I actually respect a portion of the crypto community -- they've called out some things that were stagnant in the financial sector. Of course it remains to be seen if they can come up with viable alternatives, but agreeing on a problem is a good step fo…
> Financial transactions should not cost much more than compute + software they run on. The fees aren't pure profit for financial institutions. Its used to subsidize consumer protections like fraud prevention and reversal. > This is one angle where I actually respect a portion of the crypto community Is there a portion of crypto platforms that don't take in fees?
It's also used for cashback credit cards to attract high income people with good credit scores, at the expense of everybody else.
Re: Why doctors pay millions in fees that could be spent on care
#20It always is the "Insurer". The middle man mafia that has no reason to exist between a Doctor and Patient except for Catastrophic situations as all insurance should be. But not in America. We pay a heavy price for that.
Imagine if we had "food insurance". Your grocery store is "in network", but the butcher sends you a bill because he is out-of-network. No prices on anything, because your insurance carrier has "negotiated" a price for you, which you only find out after the fact.