By Bill Rusteberg
Ruben Edelstein practiced managed care in his own way. The son of immigrants, he ran a successful furniture business in South Texas. An astute businessman, he grew the business with locations throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley in deep South Texas.
I was fortunate to know him. Mr. Edelstein ran a lean operation and took care of his valued employees. He knew each one by name. And he provided health insurance although he didn’t have to in those days. I was his broker for many years and learned more from him than he did from me.
One day he called me. “Bill, when you are in the area, please come by to see me” he said. “Of course Mr. Edelstein, I will be right over” I replied. I entered his office, sat down and asked what was on his mind. “Well, I just noticed we received a bill for an MRI for $4,200. I think that is too high, can you do anything about this? I have only so much money, and this self funded plan is not a welfare plan with unlimited funds!”
I took the bill down to the MRI center and asked to speak to the business manager. “Hi, I represent Mr. Edelstein, owner of Edelsteins Better Furniture with over 300 employees, and we would like to contract with you for MRI services” I said. “Certainly, we can provide MRI’s for $750” replied the business manager. “Good, let’s start with this one” I said and handed him the invoice.
On another occasion, Mr. Edelstein called me and said “Bill, we have a first year employee whose coverage is limited to $10,000 under our plan. She just found out she needs an emergency hysterectomy and was told the bill would be around $28,000. Can you help?” I met with a local hospital administrator that afternoon and told her “I have $10,000, will write you a check right now if you can arrange a global fee of $10,000 for this valued employee of Edelsteins Better Furniture.” The result of Mr. Edelstein’s managed care protocol: patient was treated for $10,000.
Mr. Ruben Edelstein passed away this week at age 96.
NOTE: This is an older post that was published in July 2014
