“NCB, are you now seeing things differently than when you said you haven’t seen a rational reason not to bill insurance?”
Not really. The original comment I made was referring to the emotional arguments that were assuming this was for profit, which everyone seems to have decided not to go with. The conversation has now turned to copays/deductables. One person has said that the customer doesn’t get the bill in the towns that have implemented this.
As far as hatzoleh helping the person pay the bill, I don’t see why that would be insurance fraud. I don’t think the insurance cares where you got the money to pay them. As for high deductables, if the deductable exceeds the cost, then it would pretty much be like dealing with someone without insurance, or like dealing in a system where you don’t bill insurance. It definitely wouldn’t put them on worse footing than now.