What are some common fraud alerts for health insurance companies?
Written by Kathryn Flores on February 7, 2012 – 3:59 amSurprisingly enough the most common type of health insurance fraud comes from the health care providers themselves. Insurance fraud is considered to be any dishonest or fraudulent intent to obtain payment from an insurance company or an insured individual. Billions of dollars are lost in fraudulent claims every year.
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According to the U.S. Attorneys website there are health care fraud and abuse control programs and guidelines to prevent insurance fraud from happening. This program works towards preventing fraud from happening and reprimands those who try to take advantage of individuals and insurers.
Why does health insurance fraud occur?
The common theme behind people committing health insurance fraud is for profit. Insurance policies and contracts give both those who are insured and the medical providers opportunities to exploit the contract. Much of the time health insurance fraud is used to deplete the taxpayer funded programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.
Certain health care providers will take advantage of patients.
Tags: Health Insurance, Insurance
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Insurers Shift More Costs To Patients; Washington Insurance Commissioner Questions Surpluses
Written by Daniel Phillips on February 3, 2012 – 6:50 pmMore insurers are shifting a growing amount of the cost of providing care to patients, Kaiser Health News reports. In other insurer news, UnitedHealth will overhaul how it pays doctors, and Washington’s state insurance commissioner is asking for permission to consider insurer surpluses when mulling proposed insurance rate increases.
Kaiser Health News: Consumers Hit By Higher Out-of-Network Medical Costs Kaiser Health News reporter Julie Appleby writes: “When Sharon Smith chose an out-of-network specialist to perform a complicated jaw surgery on her teenage son last May, she knew it would cost her more. But she was not expecting a $15,000 difference. Consumers have long complained about the cost of going outside their health plan’s network, but Smith encountered a new twist: a growing number of insurers have changed the way they calculate reimbursements to shift more of the expense to patients” (Appleby, 2/9).
The Wall Street Journal: New Way To Pay Doctors Efforts to change how Americans pay for health care are gathering momentum on a national scale as UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest U.S.
Tags: Washington, Washington Insurance
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Deloitte: Insurers’ profits tied to strategic growth and innovation
Written by Kathryn Flores on January 26, 2012 – 3:07 amInsurers will struggle to find growth and profits because of ongoing challenges caused by the global economy, according to a new forecast.
The 2012 Global Insurance Outlook, prepared by Deloitte, says insurers will have their hands full in the short- and long-term, but can benefit from focusing their efforts on strategic growth opportunities, operational excellence and innovation.
Global economic doldrums, low interest rates, persistently high unemployment and a sluggish housing recovery have created challenges for insurers, said Rebecca Amoroso, vice chairman at Deloitte and insurance sector leader, in a statement. Yet even in such uncertain economic times, there are opportunities to generate profitable growth by attracting new customers and growing market share through product development, distribution and marketing reevaluation, and reinventing the customer experience.
Tags: Growth, Growth Innovation
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Beneficiaries Of Life Insurance Policies
Written by Kathryn Flores on January 24, 2012 – 11:39 pmIf you are married your beneficiary would normally be your spouse. If you are part of a partnership or corporation you would name the business itself or the actual partners or shareholders. Here is how it works, there are different levels.
Your actual beneficiary for the proceeds of your policy is known as the primary beneficiary. You name a contingent or secondary beneficiary in the event the primary beneficiary dies before the proceeds are paid and the owner did not get to changing the person who would receive the money.
If no change was made and both the primary and contingent beneficiaries should die before the insured then the proceeds would go to named “further payees”.
Instead of naming a beneficiary you could put “Estate” as your beneficiary but this would cause your proceeds to be subject to Federal Income Taxes. There normally are no taxes payable when an actual person is named to receive your life insurance proceeds.
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