Greed is good

MScoleman at aol.com MScoleman at aol.com
Mon Jun 15 18:30:04 PDT 1998


In a message dated 98-06-15 11:53:48 EDT, Jason writes:

<< Look at medical insurance payment systems:

Medicaid/Medicare have the ONLY tape-to-tape third party hospital billing

systems. Aetna, Blue Cross, forget about it - they suck - it takes hospitals

forever to collect from them. That's why the Social Secuity expense ratio

(expenses/premiums) for both the pure indemnity and medical cost is

infinitesmal compared to the private insurers. >>

About ten years ago a friend of mine who is president of a cwa local went to visit a cwa hospital in Toronto which was approximately the same size as Beth Israel in Manhattan at that time. With uniform collection policies nationwide, this hospital's billing department was run with a staff of 9 persons. Beth Israel had two whole floors devoted to people who just collect insurance. Another example, 25% of the American waged workforce is management. This is the highest management/nonmanagement ratio IN THE WORLD. I think the next closest is Japan with about 11-12% but it's been a long time since I looked at the comparative figures. For all this you can look at some of David Gordons posthumously printed work.

maggie coleman mscoleman at aol.com



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