AthenaHealth has announced its rankings on the best and worst payers in health care. Athena CEO Jon Bush discussed the PayerView rankings on the CNBC Squawkbox with Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, the No. 1 ranked fastest payer. Williams pontificated about how great it will be when all the stuff Aetna is putting in motion is up and running.
Then, he got a tough question about the pressure that high-deductible health plans have put on physicians by making them figure out payments from consumers and insurers. This is a real problem for doctors and getting worse. The amusing thing is that the question came not from the journalists but from Bush.
After Williams’ somewhat waffly answer, Bush said that he’s looking forward to announcing real-time claim adjudication with Aetna any time now. I’m not sure if Bush intended that as a slam or a promise (maybe both), but it seems AthenaHealth has had it with Humana and United Healthcare for a while.
Here’s the video and here’s the press release. New York’s Medicaid program is the worst payer, as if you were surprised.
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The delays in medical billing can become a nightmare for the patients. I was hospitalized for 26 hours with Dengue Fever. The insurance company rejected the claim, required appeals to be filed, and then after I won the appeal they drug their feet in paying the claims. I ended up bearing the brunt of the hassles. The hospital kept coming at me wanting their money yet I was forced to wait on the insurance company or pay the $9,000 out of pocket which seemed ridiculous. Luckily, after 9 months I got the situation resolved without ruining my credit.