It seems just yesterday that UMC and Blue Cross settled their little feud. Well, 2018 is back. UMC notified employees and patients that UMC will be forced out of the Blue Cross network if an agreement is not reached by March 31. The letter is posted below.
17 comments:
Management of UMMC is a dumpster fire. I once went to their ER for repair after a bad fall. They kept me for ~11 hours, did some scans, stitches and a cast and sent me for minor ortho followups. They then sent me around 14 bills with errors, one a month, for over a year. Every month I provided a written explanation of their errors for that month. They never sent a correct bill and never got all their errors corrected. One would think that people whose sole job is to send and collect bills would know how to add and subtract. It's literally elementary.
They also seem to be pretty oblivious of various state laws that apply to them.
BCBS is part of the of the problem with their Gestapo type tactics to facilities and providers. Let's see their true financials? You'll see who is raking it in and remaining largely out of sight.
Wow!
The incompetence and arrogance of UMMC going toe to toe against the incompetence and arrogance of BCBSMS.
Dis gone be good.
Please. Both parties are in on this scam. They will act like they are fighting then folks will get the kickbacks and everyones insurance will go up by a few dollars. This is an old scam and governments LOVE LOVE LOVE doing it.
The Botox and bald bandits strike again.
Consequences of the arrogance of two Emergency Medicine physicians who think they know how to run all aspects of a multi billion dollar health system. They should stick to focusing on clinical.
11:55 comment is a true one and we will see how many try and dispute it. It will be a nice meter on who read this piece. This scam is no different than Senators not paying into SS and having literally their own secret insurance. Expect a true fight for you when the players play under different rules ? Big Medical is no different !
Greed of insurance companies like Blue Cross and the pharmaceutical industry have completely destroyed our medical system. It is criminal. BCBS is eventually going to run itself out of business as doctors and nurse practitioners stop accepting insurance and offering family plans to their patients. They literally send representatives to sit outside of medical offices and stalk patients to see how long they stay and threaten the docs and NPs that if they don't stop spending so much time with the patients that there will be penalties. They demand that a certain # of patients are seen per day. Damn the personal attention and level of care
Maybe a pandemic isn't the right time to squabble over money - read the room, guys...
BCBS MS is not swimming in a pile of cash as some respondents have commented. Their market is incredibly competitive. The insurance giants are nipping at their heels and ready to crush them.
The question is why UMMC has the hubris to think they (and they alone) should deserve a special break in contracting. They don't. They can't continue to escalate their huge costs and expect everyone to heel to their needs.
Time for UMMC to come to accept the best they can and sign the dotted line.
1:49
Who sets the prices for healthcare? Last time I checked my bills come from the hospital. Its all about the charting and the billing in the healthcare industry and to keep you coming back for more of course. Got to hook those kids on ADHD meds while they young so we can put them on celexa when they become teens and keep those doctors visits going on indefinitely.
FWIW, unlike every other state where I have practiced, BCBS of MS is a for-profit company.
BCBS is not “for profit”. It is a mutual insurance company, which is owned by policyholders. Not that I’m a fan of them. Worked there and it is a great place to have left.
Blue Cross has 90% of Mississippi insurance business.
Sometime soon they will have a monopoly.
Where is the very-talkative and self-centered Commissioner Chaney? He has never dared to touch BCBSMS in any respect. He's good on space heaters and fire extinguisher comments, though.
For those that actually like facts….according the Insurance Department, BCBS has less than 18% percent of the market share. Insurance is ridiculously high because healthcare is ridiculously high. Insurance companies’s profit has been capped. 85% of premiums collected must be used to pay claims for large employers (80% for small). The remaining 15 or 20 percent covers operating and administrative cost and profit. If they exceed that threshold, it must be refunded. Anyone seen any profit caps for doctors, hospitals, or pharmacy manufacturers? Nope! They rake in the dough doing unnecessary services, cramming as many patient visits they can in a day. Anyone really getting good care with 8 minute doctor visits?
For those that like the rumor mill….is UMMC really demanding that BCBS give them millions to build that surgery center on the $400,000/acre land they bought? Are they really demanding a 50% increase in reimbursement?. And people wonder why our insurance keeps going up? If insurance companies cave to their demands, our insurance will increase accordingly. Do they still have a D national quality rating??
It is sad that UMMC wants to make their private negotiations, a public matter. I received their silly letter in the mail. They are a propaganda machine! Funny how deceivingly crafty it was written. It sounded like BCBS was kicking them out. It’s probably more like blackmail. Agree to our demands or we will smear you publicly. If UMMC goes out of network, that is totally on their choosing. If UMMC wants to get the public involved, why don’t they share what their demands are with the public?? Only then could the public really know which party is being greedy!
Yeah, BC has only 18% if you include Medicare and Medicaid, which are even larger than BC. Aetna and UHC are niche players, and Humana is even tinier.
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