AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims
by Patrick TuoheyWhat appears to be the official blog of President Obama’s administration is all aflutter because the President will welcome, “doctors from across the United States to the White House to share their unique perspective on the struggles that American families face every day when it comes to health care.” (They posted today’s agenda in the name of transparency!)
The post even links to a National Public Radio (NPR) story in which a survey of medical professionals indicates they are among the biggest supporters of the so-called “public option.” A co-sponsor of the study, Dr. Alex Federman, indicates that, “physicians favored Medicare when it came to delivering care to patients. They thought Medicare was better when it came to autonomy and their decision making and their ability to get patients the care that they thought the patients needed.”
Furthermore, the American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the public option after an appeal from the President and despite, according to ABC News, the fact that “some member physicians at the group’s annual meeting [in June] likened the notion to communism.”
Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card. The chart below appears on page 5 of the 16-page report.
Of the eight insurers listed, Medicare is most likely to reject a claim, sending away 6.85% of requests. This is more than any private insurer and double that of the private insurers’ average!
In short, the AMA is endorsing a plan whose closest existing example is the most frequent denier of claims. How the public option exemplifies “delivering care to patients” is unclear.






Subscribe via RSS
102 Comments
If you add up all the private insurer claims and denials, it comes out to a 4.05% denial rate.
COMBINED they deny fewer claims at a lower rate than Medicare. And the Statists want to expand it?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Government, Big Government and charles salisbury. charles salisbury said: RT @biggovt AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims: What appears to be the official blog of Pres Obama http://bit.ly/CJZB8 [...]
This whole healthcare brouhaha hearkens back to another day and time. Back to Al Gore and his "Fuzzy Math." I wonder who is going to be in control of the "Lock Box………?"
That's a talking-point BOMBSHELL!
Hope it gets airplay far and wide.
Didn't I hear a poll that 45% of doctors said they would retire or change careers if the health care bill goes through? Or was that just for the public option? Sorry, I was driving when I heard it and couldn't write it down.
Read the the actual Hippocratic Oath itself. The words Do No Harm do not appear, Anywhere, in it.
To look at this with no investigation of what claims were denied and why makes it virtually meaningless. If Medicare was denying half the things you see advertised on TV, for people that didn't need them, I say more power to them. I would also suspect that Medicare is a much greater target for fraudulent claims than private insurance companies.
If Medicare was the lowest denier I am sure they would be attacked for paying too many fraudulent claims.
You need more information for this to be a real talking point.
Does this include denial of coverage (Something that Medicare can't do)?
Funny how there was no mention of the 1000 + doctors that traveled from all across the country and made their way to the halls of congress on 9/10 to visit with every memeber of congress and tell them No Obamacare!
Funny isn't it?
Hmmm.
Do you mean to imply that the MSM did not cover it?
Mmm, mmm, mmm.
All I know is that my mom who has alzheimers pays over $300/mo for medicare which is subtracted from her SS. It's penalty payment because she forgot to send in some forms when she became eligible. She didn't realize this in her alzheimered state that she was supposed to do that and they never followed up on it….just whacked her with a huge penalty.
AND you cannot opt out of medicare unless you give up your SS.
Medicare needs to be audited and investigated for fraud as all government agencies should..
The AMA DOES NOT REPRESENT THE MAJORITY OF DOCTORS. MY HUSBAND IS A DOCTOR AND HE NEVER JOINED AMA BECAUSE THE AMA IS TOO LIBERAL. PLEASE PEOPLE, DON'T LOOK TO THE AMA OPINION ON THIS TERRIBLE HEALTHCARE BILL HR3200. THE DOCTORS WILL LEAVE THEIR PROFESSION IF THIS PASSES, WHY WOULD ANYONE TRAIN SO HARD TO BECOME A DOCTOR AND HAVE THE GOVT. DICTATE HOW TO PRACTICE. GOVERNMENT STAY OUT OF HEATHCARE. MR. OBAMA YOU ARE NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA.
"In short, the AMA is endorsing a plan whose closest existing example is the most frequent denier of claims. "
I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to notice that.
If I'm remembering correctly I read a couple of months ago that a lot of doctors have been dropping out of the AMA because they support socialized medicine and the doctors don't. Is this just another ploy by the White House to make people think the doctors want it?
65-70% will concider leaving and why not. Why would anyone want to be forced by the government. There will be a shortage of healthcare providers, but this dizzy Obama and his dems just don't seem to care as long as they get their way. Obamacare is nuts! This Obama and Chicago cronies will do anything to wreck America.
Sadly I'm not surprised. These are the kind of people who attempt to put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it, hoping that it burns out faster (because that will "magically" yield less havoc). Stupidity to the 10th degree.
My husband is also a physician and promptly cancelled his AMA membership when they decided to be the voice of US physicians without even polling their members.
He will likely change careers or go into missionary medicine if this all goes through. As it is right now, it costs him more to see medicare patients than he is reimbursed. He only takes medicare as a service to his existing patients that are forced to go on it when they turn 65. It took their office over a year to even become a provider with Medicare, even with an employee dedicated to calling very regularly and doing everything possible on the physician end to jump through all of the hoops and red tape!
[...] Via Big Government: [...]
The problem is that Medicare has an enormous fraud rate – something like 10-20% of their budget, but private insurers only have about 1%.
The "deniers" (public or private) don't do any of the following:
-see a patient
-have a judgment of best probable outcome for that individual
-know how previous therapy may have worked for that individual-
and the list goes on….. please add …
It would be interesting to see the denial reasons for these claims. Not all denials are due to no coverage/benefit; some are duplicate filings due to the slow response from insurers, improper coding, failure to file through networks, etc. As private companies are held to higher claim processing standards (most, if not all private plans are governed by ERISA and/or state rules), medicare's denial rate is probably even higher (relatively) since federal plans are not subject to the same regulations or measurement standards.
[...] [...]
Mmm Mmm Mmm
Obamessiah says we can all keep our health care
Mmm Mmm Mmm
But we're on the path to denied claim Medicare
Mmm Mmm Mmm
I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
475,000 denials? You think enough of that large a figure could be set aside? You're dreaming. Even 50,000 would not help their case.
If you look at the AMA paper linked, they go into some detail, most of it quite technical, for claim denial reasons.
The phrase "do no harm" is taught in medical school and the original version of the Hippocratic Oath says "to abstain from doing harm". That's close enough for me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_non_nocere
Make no mistake, these people are not your garden variety of Democrats. These are true blood progressives which are so much more dangerous. Even some liberal virgins think it sounds cool to say they are progressive and they don't even know what they are talking about. I quoted Roosevelt to one the other day and got lambasted for not knowing he was a Republican. Had to explain to this moron how Teddy had an R after his name but he was definitely a progressive.
LOL, um mmm mmm gag
LIE, LIE, LIE!!!! AMA has stabbed the medical profession big time! My husband was one of thousands who dropped his membership in AMA after they “came out of hidding” and endorsed Obama’s plan.
DOCTORS: organize a “walk-out from work protest day” before it’s too late! Just 1 hour that all MD’s shut down offices should get the attention of congress! I know many physicians who would gladly hang up their stethoscopes than work as slaves to the government. Bagging groceries is more rewarding.
[...] [...]
I am a US physician. This so called "survey of medical professionals" was a questionnaire sent to 2000 physicians SELECTED FROM THE AMA DATABASE! (I received this survey several months before I cancelled my AMA membership). On their own website, AMA admits their membership includes only about 30% of US doctors. The point is, this "survey" is a joke, in no way representative of the opinions of a majority of US physicians.
[...] more: AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims By admin | category: consulting companies | tags: all-aflutter, clear-vision, consulting [...]
Which version do you refer too? The twelfth-century Byzantine manuscript of the Oath, rendered in the form of a cross, or one of the hundred other versions written later?
You heard correctly. For some reason Doctors want private practices not government practice. Darn that Hippocratic Oath it gets in the way of Obama.
[...] From BigGovernment.com (HT Mark Levin over the airwaves this evening): Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card (fairly large PDF). [...]
Well that makes me happy I am with UHC (even though it's expensive as all get out)… at least I am less likely to be denied… :/
I really hope that I can keep my health insurance after the Dem's get done with it.. :/
NewsBusters — Deny This: Guess Who Has the Highest Medical Claim Rejection Rate?
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/10/0...
Already debunked…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/6/790105/-Medicare-denies-more-than-private-insurance!-%28Update:-Debunked!%29
This is a whacko website. Medicare is not the biggest denier of claims. It does not cancel people’s coverage when they are found to be sick like private insurance does. It does not deny needed medical care. It does not refuse to insure people because of pre-existing conditions.
this is a right wing whacko site. If you hate your government so much, move to some right wing country. You are destroying our country with your phoney
statistics and constant lies and misinformation.
To the mentally challenged Barbara,,,,
Medicare will be forced to ration care. If you don't understand this basic fact, you do not understand economics. Equal misery for all. You want Medicare? You enroll and you pay the full cost for it and stop living out of my wallet.
Our founding fathers declared their independence from tyranny in the founding documents of our nation, yet Barbara tells us we must leave a country founded on freedom to seek another country to find the freedom we seek.
This takeover is about government power and locking in the Democratic parties perpetual RULE. Taking over . health care, banking, energy, housing, automotive industry and tightly controlling them is the classic definition of fascism. Yet who flings the fascist label around in a weak attempt to insult the opposition when they have lost the argument?
[...] insurance companies should be more like the selfless government run Medicare. Yeah, about that (via Big Government through Newsbusters) Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA [...]
[...] insurance companies should be more like the selfless government run Medicare. Yeah, about that (via Big Government through Newsbusters) Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA [...]
[...] insurance companies should be more like the selfless government run Medicare. Yeah, about that (via Big Government through Newsbusters) Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA [...]
[...] Big Government.com comes the [...]
[...] Big Government claims that, in supporting a public plan, doctors are endorsing the largest denier of health care claims. The selected data they cite is misleading and the blog’s argument is contrary to our actual experience. The chances of getting paid is far better from Medicare than most private insurance companies assuming Medicare was correctly billed as primary insurance. Such personal experience is what is going to influence physician support for a public plan–not selective quoting of statistics by conservative blogs. [...]
[...] Big Government » Blog Archive » AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims. [...]
[...] Source var addthis_pub = 'vincenzof'; var addthis_language = 'en';var addthis_options = 'email, favorites, twitter, digg, delicious, myspace, google, facebook, reddit, live, more'; [...]
The original translated into English: "And never do harm to anyone."
The modern version: "And keep them from harm and injustice."
Close enough. Don't be pedantic.
[...] unsurprisingly, it isn’t private insurance companies, in some cases by quite a large margin. A chart from some recent research by Beverly Gossage of [...]
Another communist?
'Margarida Jorge.
http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2009/10/us-radicals-1...
[...] [...]
[...] Government medicare denies as the most amount of claims, private insurance pays out the most amount of claims. http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/05/…h-care-claims/ [...]
Aetna in one state is also the company that processes Medicare. I interviewed one of the computer programmers years ago. He developed some software that detected fraud. It would catch for example if a male patient had a baby or hysterectomy. Some simple tests for repeated claims for the same surgery. He was told by the feds to NOT run it on Medicare claims.
[...] Link: Big Government » Blog Archive » AMA Endorses Largest Denier of … [...]
[...] From BigGovernment.com (HT Mark Levin over the airwaves this evening): Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card (fairly large PDF). [...]
It's true that Obama and the AMA are in lockstep.As ususal Obama wants to legislate for minority groups again because the AMA only represents 20% of America's doctors.
I figure since Obama was handing out lab coats to those 150 people.At least ten of them were doctors from Chicago and the rest were imposters from Acorn and the SEIU union.A couple of other minority groups Obama governs for.
[...] From BigGovernment.com (HT Mark Levin over the airwaves this evening): Beverly Gossage, Research Fellow for Show-Me Institute and founder of HSA Benefits Consulting wondered which insurance companies rejected the most claims. She found her answer in the AMA’s own 2008 National Health Insurer Report Card (fairly large PDF). [...]
Wow this post is misleading. Take a look at the actual linked "Report Card," and how they define "Denial." In fact, ALL of the private insurers do something called "Paying $0 by reducing the charge to $0 by edits". For some reason, they don't call this a "denial" – but the result is the same. Here are the percentages for this practice:
Aetna: 3.75%
Anthem BCBS: 3.4%
CIGNA: 7.33%
Coventry: 0.31%
Humana: 3.17%
United Healthcare (UHC): 9.15%
Medicare: 1.4%
In other words, if a Doctor bills United Healthcare, he or she is likely to have over 11% of claim items paid at 0$ (2.68% "denials" plus 9.15% "edit to $0"). In contrast, if the Doctor bills Medicare for the same procedures, less than 9% of claims will be paid at 0$.
Of course, this "paid at $0" metric does not even take into account how many insurers will pay at 50% or 70%, sticking the patient with the rest of the bill.
[...] is the most likely to reject a claim BigGovt Just a little more evidence of the way govt fails at providing health care services. However, I am [...]
[...] Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government (via Doug [...]
[...] So much for the evil insurance companies. In fact, they deny more than twice the average. AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims from Big Government by Patrick [...]
[...] by Patrick Tuohey at BigGovernment.com What appears to be the official blog of President Obama’s administration is all aflutter because [...]
I wonder if Mr. Tuohey actually read the study to which he linked.
On the very first page of the study is a more telling figure: “Metric 5:
Contracted payment rate adherence”. That is, “On what percentage of records does the payer’s allowed amount equal the contracted payment rate?” (see page 4). Put another way: How often does the insurer pay the doctor what it is contractually obligated to pay the doctor?
Aetna: 70.78%
Anthem BCBS: 72.14%
CIGNA: 66.23%
Coventry: 86.74%
Health Net: NR
Humana: 84.2%
UHC: 61.55%
Medicare: 98.12%
As for the contention that “the AMA is endorsing a plan whose closest existing example is the most frequent denier of claims. How the public option exemplifies “delivering care to patients” is unclear”, Mr. Tuohey seems to not know much about Medicare.
Medicare does not have a pre-certification/pre-approval process for products and services. To find out if Medicare will deny a claim, generally, it is necessary to submit a claim.
Private insurers do have pre-certification/pre-approval processes for products and services. Thus, they are able to prevent deniable claims from ever being filed, and thus, they may deny treatment without being accused of denying a “claim”.
Therefore, a more meaningful metric would be to compare the percentage of Medicare-denied claims to an aggregate rate of private insurer pre-certification denials and claim denials. Good luck finding any statistics on that.
If it were possible to get that information, I think that Medicare would come out well ahead of private insurers in terms of allowing payment for products and services (and as one commenter noted, perhaps too far ahead: Fraud and abuse of the Medicare system are rampant).
The lack of pre-certification/pre-approval is what the AMA means by “delivering care to patients”. Medicare uses a “pay and chase” system. That is, it pays first, asks questions later. This can result in too many claims getting paid, but Medicare generally does not preemptively interfere with treatment. Private insurers ask questions first, promise to pay, then stick the doctors with up to 39% of what the insurer had promised to pay.
To borrow from Forrest Gump, private insurance reimbursement is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to get.
Medicare reimbursement might be likened more to a bag of M&Ms: You always know what you’re going to get. It may not be very good or very much, but you always know.
[...] Ummmmmmm…… [...]
[...] From BigGovernment.com (HT Mark Levin over the airwaves this evening): [...]
ONLY 16% of doctors are members of AMA.
If the goal of health reform is to lower health care for all than add VA as a model.
[...] Did you guess Medicare? Their rejection rate of 6.85% of all line items submitted is higher than any major private insurer. Now unlike Tom Carper and John Conyers, Medicare employees may at least read before they make a decision. However, anyone who thinks Government insurance will somehow be nicer or more understanding than Aetna should stick that one in their pipe and smoke it. Sphere: Related Content Share on: Facebook | digg_url = 'http://www.redstate.com/redhot/2009/10/06/great-benefits-redux/'; digg_title = 'Great Benefits Redux'; digg_skin = 'compact'; | Reddit [...]
[...] BigGovernment.com: What appears to be the official blog of President Obama’s administration is all aflutter [...]
[...] http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/05/ama-endorses-largest-denier-of-health-care-claims/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)F.A.Q.: Everything you’ve wanted to know about health care reformHealth Care: Boiling Down to Private vs. PublicOutlook: Obama’s Health Plan At Risk? ▶ Comment /* 0) { jQuery('#comments').show('', change_location()); jQuery('#showcomments a .closed').css('display', 'none'); jQuery('#showcomments a .open').css('display', 'inline'); return true; } else { jQuery('#comments').hide(''); jQuery('#showcomments a .closed').css('display', 'inline'); jQuery('#showcomments a .open').css('display', 'none'); return false; } } jQuery('#showcomments a').click(function(){ if(jQuery('#comments').css('display') == 'none') { self.location.href = '#comments'; check_location(); } else { check_location('hide'); } }); function change_location() { self.location.href = '#comments'; } }); /* ]]> */ Click here to cancel reply. [...]
Hi everyone: maybe you should actually read the linked PDF. 27.8% of what the report card calls Medicare's denials are actually coded as "Claim/service lacks information which is needed for adjudication." Compare this with the private companies' denial codes, which are actually denials (except for BCBS, which also has a high rate of requests for more information) or outright refusals to supply information. Skip to page 6 of the PDF, look at the charts and then compare them with the claim code lookup chart on the following page. It does require some effort, but it's interesting to note that these may not be actual denials for Medicare. I would give more credibility to this data if we knew what happened after the paperwork was completed–not just what the paperwork said at one point.
Is there any info on how much it costs to process a medicare or medicaid claim as compared to private insurance claims. I would suspect that the government buracracy is inefficient and the cost will be more. Doe anyone have this info?
[...] Obamacare: AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims – Medicare Furthermore, the American Medical Association (AMA) has endorsed the public option after an appeal from the President and despite, according to ABC News, the fact that “some member physicians at the group’s annual meeting [in June] likened the notion to communism.” [...]
I dont have exact numbers but i work in the accounts recievable department of a company that specializes in medical billing for 5 different radiology centers.
We spend exponentially more time working private health insurance claims than we do medicare and medicaid. United Health Care is by far the worst, many times we will have to make multiple calls to them, meaning we have to sit on hold for 30 minutes per call, then we are connected to someone from india, pakistan, or bangladesh, all because they denied our claim due to a middle initial being incorrect or something else trivial.
With medicare we know how much we are getting paid per claim, a huge portion of the claims flow electronically and very few are denied, if they are denied its usually something simple that we can look up on a website. Medicaid is more annoying, but thats because thier information is kinda hard to read when printed out.
The trade off is that we get paid less per claim with medicare, but that is mostly balanced out by the ease of the work we do per claim.
[...] Medicare denies more claims than private Insurers [...]
[...] Who, though, is the largest denier of medical claims in America? [...]
From a purely statistics standpoint the comparison is apples to oranges and why there are more than just one metric in the analysis.
This data point in metric #12 is good info but not complete and does not truly conclude a greater weight for either private plan or medicare.
The article should focus on the the entire analysis rather than Metric #12.
I found metric #5 pretty interesting but I would not weigh my analysis on just that one point.
"AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims"
Okay…That's Medicare.
"Of the eight insurers listed, Medicare is most likely to reject a claim, sending away 6.85% of requests. This is more than any private insurer and double that of the private insurers’ average!"
DOUBLE that of the private insurers' average!
THE AVERAGE! Yikes…
Aetna Percent of claim lines denied was 6.80% …right? Only 0.05% less?
And Medicare looks like it had almost 7 million claims. How many did claims did Aetna process?
A little over 637,000? Why did Aetna deny so many claims? They make an awful lot of money…
What was the point of your goofy post? People who have Aetna could pay a lot less and get the same quality through Medicare?
This is big, bad Breitbart?
Good god, just take a look at those numbers!!!! I mean seriously, Medicare–with 81% higher number of records than second place Aetna–is only .05% higher in denials!
Seriously, without context these statistics mean nothing. A denial/correction of a charge of even $.01 would qualify as a denial in the above chart. There's no context with regards to the size of records. Even if you take UHC (highest number of records after Medicare with lowest percent of claims denied) and scaled their denial percentage against an increase in records to the size of Medicare's, their denial percentage would rise to 16%. Imagine what Aetna's or Anthem's would look like then?
You know what they say: "Lies, damn lies, and statistics."
[...] UnitedHealth Group has one of the best ratings of all insurers in the country, and actually declines payment of claims at a rate considerably less than our [...]
[...] via Big Government [...]
[...] Patrick Tuohey Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Sen. Stabenow’s Zinger on Maternity [...]
[...] From here. Category: Politics You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. [...]
[...] is important, but govt run is a bad scenario. Medicare rejects more claims than private insurers: Big Government Blog Archive AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims Also more and more doctors are opting out of medicare because of continued drop in reimburment [...]
[...] Here is the story from BIG GOVERNMENT along with a chart showing the numbers. Oh yeah don’t believe that site and the story? Well here is the government report. [...]
[...] To read futher on this subject you can go here and here. [...]
If you read the actual pdf, you will see that this is an issue bad statistic interpretation due to the different manner in which the private and public insurers file. The private insurers edit claim lines to $0, which is an effective denial of coverage that is not classed as the same type of denial as this post is focusing it's story. When computing the total % of line claims and general claims denied:
Medicare's total denial rate is 6.85% + 1.4% = 8.25%
All other insurers = well over 10%
As far as being what is good for doctors: Medicare pays nearly 100% of the contracted rate for service. The private companies do not even come close. This means that when the doctors and medical service providers are paid, medicare is most likely to pay them at their fully anticipated rate. UHC barely pays 60%. Imagine if you're a contractor that only gets 60% payment…
It's important to do your own research of the original document and not accept a single table extracted on a blog post as the truthful view of the data.
FYI: I have UHC and have developed kidney stones. They've denied 100% of claims filed in the last month. The only services I've received coverage for go through a different insurer (BCBS). I'm out of pocket several hundred $ this month, and I have health insurance!
while i am with you – it seems Doctors can live on less – they charge what the market will bear and that is driving up cost – -come down here where you can't find a job — quit and see how fast you get ulcers
[...] may also want to check out: How do I get a Small Business Loan or Government Grant if I have a …Big Government » Blog Archive » AMA Endorses Largest Denier of …135+ Awesome Fresh Article Links for Designers and Developers …SelectCDRates.com – The Leading [...]
[...] is the HIGHEST percentage DENIER of claims at almost TWICE the average of insurance companies. Big Government Blog Archive AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims Now be sure not to let any real intelligence influence your position. __________________ [...]
at least there are still people that look at statistics objectively. No one knows who the woman is. The way it's presented is dubious. "(some lady) wondered this exact statistic"? Then no other information… If it was a comparison of samples of the same type of claim, it might actually mean something. You could say because people get shot more in ghettos than in the suburbs bullets are more effective there because there's so many deaths, but really it's because they're more likely to shoot each other there. The ambiguity of this information cannot be ignored.
Several likely causes for the numbers
1) private insurers drop people (they can no longer be denied because they can't make claims anymore)
2) private insurers choose who they insure, cherry picking healthy people (less claims that might be denied)
3) The American Medical Association is the same organization that said medicare would make the USA a socialist country (hardly trustworthy)
4) The whole statistic is bull and conflicts with California's study of the same thing by a gigantic margin.
Interestingly, medicare claims that are denied can be contested and go before a judge! Also interesting is the fact that most appeals are approved.
Prescription Research Institute, a non-profit organization engaged in promoting the safe and effective use of expired medications recently launched its web site saveyourmeds.org.
Conducting laboratory tests on expired medications in conjunction with surveys of consumer use of outdated medicines in their homes, the Institute will create the world’s largest data base resulting in medication cost savings, public health benefits and a positive environmental impact. The high cost of medicines is a problem that seems to be getting worse rather than better. The U.S. Armed forces recognized this in 1985, resulting in the creation of the Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP) . SLEP established that 90% of the Department of Defense’s billion-dollar stockpile of drugs were proven to be effective and safe as long as 10 years beyond the manufacturer’s expiration date. More recently, the FDA decided to release for public consumption outdated Tamiflu and Relenza. We believe these actions show that the use of effective outdated medicines needs to be closer examined.
We’re conducting stability tests of expired medication and collecting data. You can assist by completing our survey.
[...] Story is here. [...]
[...] seven private insurance companies and Medicare, the highest percentage of dropped or denied claims comes from the program that’s run by the government. Posted in: Abortion, Health care Printer Friendly comments (40) trackbacks [...]
[...] As I’m following Nancy Pelosi’s assault on the American middle class this weekend, I was surprised to find out that government insurance already rejects more claims — both overall and percentage-wise – than any private insurance company. Actually, it rejects double the private insurers’ average. [...]
[...] would be Medicare. Let’s put them in charge of [...]
I believe that 25% of all doctors belong to AMA. The reason that they have that many members is that all interns and residents are forced to pay for membership, so many of the 25% are not for the Democrat Bill but are being presented as such. After moving to their specialties they move on to medical organizations that reflect them. There are seventeen other medical doctor's associations, representing many of the other 75% of doctors who are speaking against the Democrat Health Care Plan. The AARP earned about one billion dollars selling insurance that covers the 20% that medicare does not cover. I believe the new plan forces the other insurers in that area out of business. What will that translate to in profits for the AARP, another 2, 5, 10 billion in profits. They could probably afford to lose eighty or ninety per cent of their membership.
[...] Big Government » Blog Archive » AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Spreading misinformationToday’s Lebanon Democrat column: “Don’t be deceived by false promises”Democrats Hurry Up to Pass Subprime Socialized Health CareHouse Democrats Consider Making Public Option Out of Expanded Medicare [...]
[...] keep this in mind: The largest denier of claims in the United States is the government. You read that correctly. According to this chart, Medicare denies 6.85% of claims. That’s more than the highest [...]
ALERT !!!
Americans, please get a copy of your Constitution and the Bill of Rights . Compare it to what America has become. We are unique with our "Dynamic Duo of Rights". Don't let it get shedded by the politicos who could care less about you.
Can you imagine yourself going to prison because you don't sign up for "their plan"?
This whole healthcare brouhaha hearkens back to another day and time. Back to Al Gore and his "Fuzzy Math." I wonder who is going to be in control of the "Lock Box………?"