Health Insurers are not always honest and there are times when they keep certain information away from their clients. It is important; therefore, to know what they are keeping hidden from you.
Cheaper to Die Than to Treat the Patient
For instance, some health insurers have the attitude that it’s “cheaper to let you die than it is to treat you” for a condition that is serious. The fact is health insurers don’t deny care but they sometimes deny the payment—payment that can bring about healing, relieve pain and give comfort. But, this kind of thinking and behaving means the same thing. Denying money saves them a lot of money but it could bring about a patient’s death. Another example is when health insurers make their covered benefits as limited as the market allows and then on a routine basis, redesign benefits in order to control their high costs. And, what makes this procedure insidious and dishonest, is that they use deceitful language to hide the exclusions.
Phantom Networks
Still another example is that health insurers often use “phantom networks.” For instance, let’s say that you want to switch primary care physicians within your plan’s provider network but you find out that many of the doctors on the provider list are not accepting new patients. This is an example of a “phantom network”—a directory that is filled with new doctors who are no longer with the plan or who are not taking new patients. This is dishonest, confusing and results in a lot of lost time and lost treatment for the patient.
Another thing your insurance company doesn’t want you to know is that your doctor is not always following his or her own guidelines when it comes to approving how long you will stay in a hospital or other medical decisions on your behalf. Often he or she is following guidelines developed by an actuarial consulting firm. For more information on insurance companies and your health,
check out Wikipedia.
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