New Health Insurance Fees Start in 2012

December 28, 2011

Fee is to fund research

In 2012, a new fee will be charged to health insurance plans to fund research to find out which drugs, medical procedures, tests and treatments work best. Some are concerned that insurance carriers will take the findings and use them to make coverage determinations. Also reported in the December 28, 2011 NAHU Newswire is an article that details how recoding of medical procedures from preventive screenings to diagnostic procedures can occur resulting in a cost to patients. The example cited was from a patient that went in for a preventive colon cancer screening and because the doctor removed two non- cancerous polyps, the procedure was then recoded by the insurance company to be diagnostic and not preventive.

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