For Governor Cuomo: A lesson about the nature of the insurance industry

I have used this space as well as our Facebook page to chronicle the ongoing problems with municipal takeover of health care.  The problems with billing and payments to health care providers has gotten a lot of press lately and Governor Cuomo and his administration are taking some very well deserved lumps for their inept management of the Bureau of Early Intervention.There is an apparent inability to understand the nexus of their legislative and regulatory fiats with the corresponding impact on service delivery.  All we get from our government is statements that the problem lies with private insurers that have failed to pay their share of the program's cost.Albany intended to share costs, but they do not intend to share responsibility for their actions that contribute to the problem. What they fail to understand is that when the government burdens a private entity you can count on the fact that there will be push-back from the private entities.  Failing to take this into consideration has been a recipe for disaster.As a stunning example of the push-back from insurance companies, I received a letter from United Healthcare today that announces a new policy for their Medicaid Managed Care lines.  Under the new policy effective September 1st 2013, physical/occupational/speech therapy for children under 21 will now require authorization after the 12th visit.  Previously, there was no authorization policy for children. What is interesting is that there can ...
Source: ABC Therapeutics Occupational Therapy Weblog - Category: Occupational Therapists Tags: health insurance Source Type: blogs