Dr. Dana Corriel discusses how Cigna posted a $5.6 billion Q3 profit while cutting provider payments by 3-7% and employee premiums jumped 86%. She argues that employer-chosen insurance plans trap patients, but some doctors like Daniel Paul and Diana Gornitsa are building "insuranceless" practices that bypass insurers entirely.
One of the really exciting ways that doctors are creating is insuranceless practices. A lot of doctors are starting to figure out ways of how to better connect with patients, but remove those middle— the middlemen.
If you look at the profits of the insurance companies at the time of this recording, I think Cigna just announced their 3rd quarter profits were $5.6 billion with a B dollars. And then you see that they, you know, they're cutting reimbursement rates by another 3 to 7%. And as a business owner in the groups that I'm in, one of the things that we— everybody's been discussing is their insurance premiums for their employees is going up 86%.
Yep.
I mean, it's becoming untenable. So what do you think the solution is? What— go ahead.
Well, first of all, also, they tie the hands of patients, right? Because if an employer— the employer chooses the insurance company that fits them. And so the employee also has their hand tied because they're sort of told, well, this is the insurance that you can take part in. And so the decisions of those insurance companies are just kind of taken You know, they're just taken as is by the patients and they're, the patients sort of have to do things the way that the insurance dictates it. So that decision is sort of made between the employer and the insurance company and not so much with the patient being able to decide, well, what can I, you know, choose? They can choose maybe plans within the insurance system, but that's not the same as saying, well, I want to be with a different insurance system. In terms of what can we do, so unfortunately this is a very sticky situation again because insurances have inserted themselves into American life, you know, almost like death and taxes, right? We know that for certain there is insurance. So I think that one of the really exciting ways that doctors are creating is insuranceless Practices, you know, people like you are helping do this. People like Dr. Daniel Paul, who writes for SomyDocs regularly, does this. People like Diana Gornitsa is doing it in rheumatology. So even specialty practices can begin to do it. But basically, a lot of doctors are starting to figure out ways of how to better connect with patients, but remove those middle— the middlemen, right? The jerks, like I named them before, but the jerks that really should not be there. Or if they are there, be there in a much lesser capacity than they are today.
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