Corporate medicine versus behemoth insurance industry

Editor,

It was foolish of San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu to weigh in on the negotiations between University of California, San Francisco, and Blue Shield by choosing to side with UCSF and condemn Blue Shield. He has no idea what the issues are — it’s always about money — and which side is being unreasonable. This disruptive process is a reflection of how broken our health care system is. By now, Blue Shield has sent out letters to the affected patients to tell them to pick a different provider, and UCSF has told the patients to pick a different insurance company. Pure confusion for the patient. This process is frequently duplicated every time there are negotiations between an insurance company and a large provider like Sutter or Dignity. Medical care has deteriorated into a game of chicken between corporate medicine and insurance companies. Corporate medicine hires an army of billers to figure out how to upcode their billing codes to maximize reimbursement while the insurance companies hire their army of claims adjusters to figure out how not to pay a claim. Neither side really gives a whit about patient care regardless of their heartfelt TV commercials. The cost of medical care in this country as a percent of GDP continues to rise and dwarfs what is spent in other countries who have similar or better health care outcomes. As long as health care remains a for-profit industry there is little hope of any substantive change.