Since our practice, like others, has many insurance companies to deal with, the companies know that a mistake will eventually be made when we confuse which of the four or five laboratories we should send a patient's labs to. The labs make the patient responsible, who in turn makes the doctor's office responsible for the bill, according to the contract. This business strategy is as insane as if a store clerk were held responsible for customers' bills. That company wouldn't stay in business long. Obviously, I feel that insurance companies should pay for their clients' bills, but that makes too much sense in today's business of medicine.
Today is the day of insurance companies exploiting doctors.
I pray for the day doctors and patients regain control and push insurance companies into the role for which they were created. Very few, if any, professional organizations would accept goals with percentages like these. In my opinion, setting physicians' goals so low is not acceptable in a profession that was once regarded so highly. Most studies demonstrate that, in the United States, the care of patients with diabetes meets the American Diabetes Association's recommended goals less than 35 percent of the time. To improve these outcomes significantly, the entire system of care must be redesigned.