Relentless Health Value

Administrative costs in the United States have a bad rap. You don’t have to look too far to find an article about how there’s now, like, 10 administrators for every 1 physician in this country. Or 3 to 4 billing people for every physician. Or find someone complaining about arduous prior auth processes and how long specialists sit on phones trying to get a prior auth approved while having a frustrating “peer consult” with a “peer” whose career has nothing to do with that specialty and, in fact, knows very little about it. Also consider the time that specialists’ admin teams have to spend—or really any doctor’s admin teams have to spend—when they are required to send documentation validating some prior auth request or appeal. They, in many cases, have to send this documentation via old-school, drop-it-in-a-mailbox mail … literally. This documentation can and often does amount to a sizable box full of paper patient records. They have to drag a box into their office and fill it up with paper to send to the insura