PNC Bank has a new survey out saying that 30% of all health care costs are to do with administration—actually it may be more than that if you believe the study in Health Affairs that said it was 20-22% of all provider costs, when the public provider payer segment is keeping an additional 3–20% of all the dollars too. I think that PNC is trying to promote HSAs et al, and perhaps wants to suggest that this will solve the administration problem. As I’ve been saying for a while, the current set up of CHDPs just means that instead of chasing down health plans for the money, providers will be turned into consumer collection agencies.

And PNCs own survey shows that most providers agree with me:

Nearly three-quarters of hospital executives surveyed (72 percent) expect high deductible health plans, which require consumers to pay more upfront costs for care out of their own pockets, to add another layer of complexity to the claims, billing and payment process.