Contorno quoted in BenefitsPro article by Al Lewis on Reducing ER Bills
Excerpt from BenefitsPro:
Reducing Emergency Medical Bills: The ultimate health equity solution
Overcoming the threat and fear of medical bankruptcy due to emergencies could be the top health equity issue your clients face, and one of the top employee stressors, as well.
You’ve no doubt seen many articles on BenefitsPRO and elsewhere about the crushing impact of medical debt. Some statistics:
- >33% of adults carry medical debt
- 18% of people have medical debt in collections, while…
- …137 million people report problems paying medical bills
Unfortunately, not too much can be done about past bills. But fear of future medical emergency billing is an equal concern, as half of all Americans don’t have enough savings to cover them.
A Solution to high emergency bills
Fortunately, there is a solution that dramatically reduces ER bills. And while I would like to take credit for it, the inspiration comes from the “Battlefield Consent” in The Price We Pay, by Marty Makary MD. Dr. Makary urges people not to sign the provider consent, for exactly the reasons laid out by Dr. Bricker. I simply applied reference-based pricing, as taught by uberbroker David Contorno, to Dr. Makary’s advice, to create a short “Prevent Consent” to use instead of signing the provider form consent: “Superseding other consents, I consent to responsibility (including insurance) for up to 2x Medicare following receipt of an itemized bill for appropriate treatment coded at the correct Level.”
Read the full article HERE.