Medical bill and health insurance form with calculator
Treating physicians have already started complaining about the frequency of information requests and phone calls they receive from disability insurance companies. I expect it to get worse in the next two months.
It has always been interesting to me that physicians have the key to stopping this abuse, but either they don’t know, or refuse to do anything about it. What I’m suggesting is that treating physicians invoice/bill insurance companies a minimum of $200 for each request (excluding doc-to-doc calls, which shouldn’t take place at all).
If physicians were to think about it, he/she is paying for the use of a facility, utilizing staff, and administrative resources in order to provide medical patient notes, or fill out forms. Why shouldn’t treating physicians inform the insurer that they will provide the medical information once their invoice is paid? I can guarantee that insurers will be reluctant to keep asking for more and more information if they are asked to pay for it. The practice of “paying” doctors for requested information grew out of fashion when insurers stopped requesting records so often. Now, that the abuse of frequent requests is back it makes sense that physicians should begin charging again.
I want to be very clear here. Update paperwork requests sent directly to claimants and insureds is the financial responsibility of the claimant. What I’m talking about are the voluminous requests for information sent directly to your physicians for completion, or requests for patient notes. Resources cost money, and treating physician’s should always charge a minimum of $200 to provide it. Most importantly, charging $200 is a dis-incentive to insurers for making multiple requests over and over again.
My recommendation to you is to discuss with your treating physicians that they can invoice insurers when they get requests to provide information. If they truly want the abuses to stop, they really need to do this.
