Anthem and UnitedHealthcare are among the major insurers lagging billions of dollars in payments to hospitals and doctors. New reimbursement rules, computer problems, and mishandled claims have led to these delays. Continue reading below to learn more!
Anthem Blue Cross, the country’s second-largest health insurance company, is behind on billions of dollars in payments owed to hospitals and doctors due to onerous new reimbursement rules, computer issues, and mishandled claims, according to hospital officials in multiple states. Anthem, like other big insurers, is using the COVID-19 crisis as cover to institute “egregious” policies that harm patients and strain hospital finances, said Molly Smith, group vice president at the American Hospital Association. “There’s this sense of, ‘Everyone’s distracted. We can get this through,’” she said.
Hospitals are also facing a spike in retroactive claims denials by UnitedHealthcare, the largest health insurer, for emergency department care, the AHA reports. Disputes between insurers and hospitals are nothing new, but this situation puts more patients in the middle, worried they’ll have to pay unresolved claims. Hospitals say this is hurting their finances as they cope with COVID-19 surges, even after receiving tens of billions of dollars in federal emergency assistance.
“We recognize there have been some challenges” to prompt payments caused by claims-processing changes and “a new set of dynamics” amid the pandemic, Anthem spokesperson Colin Manning said in an email. “We apologize for any delays or inconvenience this may have caused.”
Virginia law requires insurers to pay claims within 40 days. In a Sept. 24 letter to state insurance regulators, VCU Health, which operates a large teaching hospital in Richmond associated with Virginia Commonwealth University, said Anthem owes it $385 million. More than 40% of the claims are over 90 days old, VCU said. For all Virginia hospitals, Anthem’s late, unpaid claims amount to “hundreds of millions of dollars,” the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association said in a June 23 letter to state regulators. Nationwide, the payment delays “are creating an untenable situation,” the American Hospital Association said in a Sept. 9 letter to Anthem CEO Gail Boudreaux. “Patients are facing greater hurdles to accessing care; clinicians are burning out on unnecessary administrative tasks, and the system is straining to finance the personnel and supplies” needed to fight COVID-19.
Complaints about Anthem extend “from sea to shining sea, from New Hampshire to California,” AHA CEO Rick Pollack told KHN. Substantial payment delays can be seen on Anthem’s books. On June 30, 2019, before the pandemic, 43% of the insurer’s medical bills for that quarter were unpaid, according to regulatory filings. Two years later, that figure had risen to 53% – a difference of $2.5 billion. Anthem profits were $4.6 billion in 2020 and $3.5 billion in the first half of 2021.
‘It’s a game they’re playing’
Alexis Thurber, who lives near Seattle, was insured by Anthem when she received an $18,192 hospital bill in May for radiation therapy that doctors said was essential to treat her breast cancer. Anthem deemed the treatments “experimental” and “not medically necessary,” according to Thurber. She spent much of the summer trying to get the insurer to pay up – making two dozen phone calls, spending hours on hold, sending multiple emails, and enduring immense stress and worry. It finally covered the claim months later. “It’s so egregious. It’s a game they’re playing,” said Thurber, 51, whose cancer was diagnosed in November. “Trying to get true help was impossible.” Privacy rules prevent Anthem from commenting on Thurber’s case, said Anthem spokesperson Colin Manning.
When insurers fail to promptly pay medical bills, patients are left in a bind. They might first get a notice saying payment is pending or denied. A hospital might bill them for treatment they thought would be covered. Hospitals and doctors often sue patients whose insurance didn’t pay. Hospitals point to various Anthem practices contributing to payment delays or denials, including new layers of document requirements, prior-authorization hurdles for routine procedures, and requirements that doctors themselves – not support staffers – speak to insurance gatekeepers. “This requires providers to literally leave the patient’s bedside to get on the phone with Anthem,” AHA said in its letter. Anthem often hinders coverage for outpatient surgery, specialty pharmacy, and other services in health systems listed as in-network, amounting to a “bait and switch” on Anthem members, AHA officials said. “Demanding that patients be treated outside of the hospital setting, against the advice of the patient’s in-network treating physician, appears to be motivated by a desire to drive up Empire’s profits,” the Greater New York Hospital Association wrote in an April letter to Empire Blue Cross, which is owned by Anthem.
Anthem officials pushed back in a recent letter to the AHA, saying the insurer’s changing rules are partly intended to control excessive prices charged by hospitals for specialty drugs and non-emergency surgery, screening, and diagnostic procedures. Severe problems with Anthem’s new claims management system surfaced months ago and “persist without meaningful improvement,” AHA said in its letter. Claims have gotten lost in Anthem’s computers, and in some cases, VCU Health has had to print medical records and mail them to get paid, VCU said in its letter. The cash slowdown imposes “an unmanageable disruption that threatens to undermine our financial footing,” VCU said.
An ‘incredibly aggravating’ response
United denied $31,557 in claims for Emily Long’s care after she was struck in June by a motorcycle in New York City. She needed surgery to repair a fractured cheekbone. United said there was a lack of documentation for “medical necessity” – an “incredibly aggravating” response on top of the distress of the accident, Long said. The Brooklyn hospital that treated Long was “paid appropriately under her plan and within the required time frame,” said United spokesperson Maria Gordon Shydlo. “The facility has the right to appeal the decision.” United’s unpaid claims stood at 54% as of June 30, about the same level as two years previously.
When Erin Conlisk initially had trouble gaining approval for a piece of medical equipment for her elderly father this summer, United employees told her the insurer’s entire prior-authorization database had gone down for weeks, said Conlisk, who lives in California. “There was a brief issue with our prior authorization process in mid-July, which was resolved quickly,” Gordon Shydlo said.
When asked by Wall Street analysts about the payment backups, Anthem executives said it partly reflects their decision to increase financial reserves amid the health crisis. “Really a ton of uncertainty associated with this environment,” John Gallina, the company’s chief financial officer, said on a conference call in July. “We’ve tried to be extremely prudent and conservative in our approach.”
‘A deep fear of talking on the record’
During the pandemic, hospitals have benefited from two extraordinary cash infusions. They and other medical providers have received more than $100 billion through the CARES Act of 2020 and the American Rescue Plan of 2021. Last year United, Anthem, and other insurers accelerated billions in hospital reimbursements. The federal payments enriched many of the biggest, wealthiest systems while poorer hospitals serving low-income patients and rural areas struggled. Those are the systems most hurt now by insurer payment delays, hospital officials said. Federal relief funds “have been a lifeline, but they don’t make people whole in terms of the losses from increased expenses and lost revenue as a result of the COVID experience,” Pollack said.
Several health systems declined to comment about claims-payment delays or didn’t respond to a reporter’s queries. Among individual hospitals, “there is a deep fear of talking on the record about your largest business partner,” AHA’s Smith said.
Alexis Thurber worried she might have to pay her $18,192 radiation bill herself, and she’s not confident her Anthem policy will do a better job next time of covering the cost of her care. “It makes me not want to go to the doctor anymore,” she said. “I’m scared to get another mammogram because you can’t rely on it.”
Original article published on usatoday.com