Ep. 52 -- Surprise (Balance) Billing with Dr. Amy Cho

On this episode, my guest is Amy Mecozzi Cho MD, an emergency medicine physician in MN who is passionate about making sure physicians voices are heard, particularly on the issue that is all over the news lately, Surprise (Balance) Billing. This is when the medical group providing the care charges the patient the balance between their fees and the (low) rates the insurance companies will pay. Obviously this is an unfortunate position for patients to be put in and physicians end up taking the financial and perception hits. As an emergency physician she is required to take care of anyone who comes into the emergency department by law, physician oath and ethics, regardless of ability to pay. However insurance companies do not have to follow the same rules and can refuse to negotiate adequate reimbursement because they know physicians are bound by these laws. It’s obviously an uneven playing field. These entities have also had the ear of lawmakers and are pushing solutions to Congress that would negatively impact us. We as physicians are generally too busy to fight this, but if we don’t the results will be a disaster for those involved in patient care. I encourage you to contact your congressional representative and senators and make your voice heard on this issue. The current solution in the Senate is the Benchmark solution and would lead us to the race to bottom described by Dr. Cho on the show. The New York (Independent Arbitration) solution is the one that we need to advocate for. It’s the only real way to reach fair outcomes. The fact that insurance companies are advocating for the benchmark solution should tell you as physicians how it will be for you. https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative  Here is an article that goes over the solutions in more detail: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190708.627390/full/ More episodes of this podcast are available at www.doctormoneymatters.com and Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, etc. All episodes are also now on YouTube (Audio only) and Facebook.  You can follow me on: twitter @drmoneymatters  Instagram @doctormoneymatters Facebook @doctormoneymatters Email me editor@doctormoneymatters.com Please consider joining the Doctor Money Matters Facebook group. Please share this podcast with your colleagues and join our email list. Thanks for listening and please leave us positive reviews on Apple Podcasts and continue to share this podcast with your colleagues.  

Om Podcasten

Welcome to the Doctor Money Matters podcast. I am your host Dr. Tarang Patel, a practicing diagnostic radiologist in Phoenix, AZ. I started this podcast as a way to share knowledge about financial matters as they relate to health care professionals. We spent many years learning about the science and art of providing patient care but most of us have relatively little knowledge about reaching financial well being. I know that I had no formal training in setting up investment accounts, negotiating contracts, buying insurance, buying real estate, etc. I just learned by reading and also by making many mistakes. Health care professionals are trusted to take put their patients needs first and we in turn assume everyone in other fields work the same way. Unfortunately this is not always true. By talking about these topics, I hope we can reduce the many financial mistakes that prior generations of doctors have made. Those physicians were able to overcome these mistakes because of shorter training periods, less debt, and they were more likely to be in private practice. Today we no longer have those luxuries and many of us have significant debt burdens. The good news is that we also have access to information that the prior generation never had. A little background about me. As I said before I am a practicing radiologist in Phoenix, AZ. I went to undergrad at Indiana U. (Go Hoosiers), medical school at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (Now AT Still Univ) in Missouri, moved east and did my radiology residency at New York Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. I then moved west to serve my Air Force commitment at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas, NV. I then did a fellowship in Body/Musculoskeletal Imaging at Mayo Clinic Arizona. Since I finished training I have been in a hospital employed group for the last 6 years. I have always enjoyed learning about finance and have read (listened to) many of the financial books. I also spent time reading on the bogleheads.org forum which I found to be a valuable source of information. Finally I just observed that many of my colleagues and I had the same questions about relatively basic financial matters but it was difficult to find clear answers. Hopefully you find these podcasts useful. I encourage you to subscribe to them, that way you will be updated when any episodes are released automatically. Also please let your friends and colleagues know about this podcast. Please give us good feedback on iTunes, Google Play and stitcher and if you have suggestions on topics or how to improve the podcast please send your emails to comments@doctormoneymatters.com Social media links: twitter @drmoneymatters Facebook www.facebook.com/doctormoneymatters/ Please understand that this show is for entertainment and education only and you should do your own research and speak with the appropriate experts prior to making any changes in regards to material you may have heard on the show. The opinions from the guests on this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or of Doctor Money Matters, LLC.