<p>I’m not beating up on doctors. I don’t think my mom’s podiatrist is a criminal- or even venal- or even lazy. Just that in a system that processes billions of dollars of claims per year there are areas where some well intentioned employees believe that it just costs too much to verify that services are going to a person who is in fact, alive, and will benefit from that service.</p>
<p>Somehow my bank manages to make sure that when I’m dinged $1 for using a competitors ATM, I did- in fact- use that ATM. And if I call all huffy to say that it wasn’t me and it was an error- it takes 5 seconds for the customer service person (probably in a call center off-shore) to take a keystroke and give me back my dollar. But when you call our beloved Medicare (whose efficiency Mini touts) to say that a doctor was erroneously paid for services NOT RENDERED, it takes weeks- and the employees of said system think you’re nuts for caring that the government paid an invalid claim.</p>
<p>I pity the doctors. Hard enough reading the thicket of regulations, let alone providing care. Bills go out- I get that- I don’t expect every physician to get the paperwork right all the time. But that’s supposedly why Medicare is so great- they match up the claims to the patients before paying, no?</p>