By Ty Franklin
You are the payer. Yes, you, on the other end of this post…are the payer in healthcare. Not insurance (Insurance is the intermediary, middleman.) But you………It’s your money. Both directly, through monthly contributions and deductibles, copays, out of pocket maximums . and indirectly, through your company’s contributions…(aka the company is using your compensation to pay their portion).
So…you are payer. And the payer has the power …if they use it.
We (me included), need to flex our strength and make the market listen. But if we keep viewing insurance as the payer, we will keep getting what we’ve got:
- Higher premiums
- Lower benefits
- More financial stress
- Less care
Let’s take back our purchasing power.
Unfortunately 99% of Plan Sponsors don’t view things this way. The resulting waste is incredible. Brownsville Independent School District, a + 7,000 life public school district in deep South Texas is a good example. A two hospital town, both hospitals and their physician esclavos share a +$50,000,000 Honey Pot of paid claim revenue per year through a money laundering scheme. Taxpayer monies, comingled with plan member contributions, are sent to an out-of-state lockbox. Some of it, not all of it, is redistributed in the form of paid claims by the district’s BUCA money launderer, the perceived payer. With this kind of buying power Brownsville Independent School District could do much better by saving over $20,000,000. Sadly, they just don’t understand the power they have. If they did and they don’t, why?
