Premium Medical Services and Multi-tiered Insurance Plans

Premium Medical Services and Multi-tiered Insurance Plans
by Dr. Jeffrey D. Dorfman

Premium health care services and multi-tiered insurance plans have been getting some recent, deserved publicity though they are really not new ideas. There have always been medical offices offering premium services to those patients who could afford the fees. Multi-tiered insurance plans also already exist. Every doctor knows that some insurance plans reimburse at a substantially higher rate than others and this is specifically related to the monthly premiums paid by the insured.

Multi-tiered insurance plans should be further developed as employers recognize the need for their employees to become actively involved in the expense of receiving health care. This could become a political minefield though because Americans want to believe that access to proper health care should be equally available to all. The problem for insurers is to finally, honestly acknowledge that insurance benefits are really related to the premiums being paid, and not to the spurious notion of an ever-changing, “usual, customary and reasonable” fee. This phrase has sparked recent lawsuits from the American Medical Association and the American Dental Association; this author has written a lot about this subject for years.

The only way for the U.S. to tackle health care costs is to acknowledge that one cannot legislate socialistic health care in a capitalistic society. Medical education should start in high school and continue throughout an undergraduate college curriculum. Those students on such an academic pathway could help provide health care to the 40 million uninsured Americans. We have already created a working model for this concept in our dental office. [Those interested may go to the “Office Staff” section of this website and then click on “The Internship Program” to learn more].

Categorised in: Dr. Dorfman Says

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