Monday, August 17, 2009

Wrong approach to HealthCare Reform

Medical Billing Advocates of America
Responds to the Healthcare Crisis

Medical Billing Advocates of America is a nationally recognized Advocacy Group that fights overcharges in the healthcare industry.

We began advocating for consumers 15 years ago and have educated hundreds of individuals to become the voice for consumers that can’t speak for themselves. In January of 2009, our founder, Pat Palmer, partnered with TrueFACS, an auditing company in Florida and now operates as their Vice President of Business Development, bringing her experience and expertise to Corporate America.

We, the Advocates, have listened for months to all the politicians, insurance companies, medical providers, as well as the President of the United States with outrage. If anyone, including the above, thinks the corrupt and out of control medical system can be fixed with what is being presented, they are truly mistaken. It can only escalate the crisis that exists and bring devastation to medical care in this country. Politicians have not rolled up their sleeves and investigated the medical billing practices, nor have they fought for consumers and assisted businesses so they can continue offering benefits to their employees. Politicians receive campaign contributions everyday from the medical industry. The medical industry generates large revenues from overcharging consumers. Insurance carriers are concentrated on getting discounts on charges that are not even billable services to begin with. And last but not least, our President is being guided by “so called” experts that are the least knowledgeable on how to fix the problem.

There is immediate action that can be taken to begin reducing the high cost of healthcare. Listen to the voices of the Advocates that have been helping consumers and businesses for a number of years.

Capitalism is the American system of doing business in every arena except healthcare. To our knowledge it is only the healthcare system where there is no relationship between cost and price, and the business is not vied for based on competition, value and service. Additionally almost all hospital bills are rife with “errors” that amount to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

Would our President pay a bill that simply said “Office Supplies $72,000” or “Miscellaneous $10,000”? Certainly not! Yet unbelievably that is being expected of consumers, Corporate America and the insurance industry. Insurance is not unique to healthcare. We insure our cars, our homes, our personal belongings, even our lives but it is only for health insurance where we pay premiums to support a system that accepts and endorses this kind of egregious non-accountability.




We find it absurd that many States require automobile inspection, provide the facilities to do so and they do not do the same for at least a simple full panel blood test and at best a full wellness test. Pre-symptomatic testing will provide early detection, which will allow for simple protocols to inhibit disease progression, and/or more aggressive medical treatment at a much lower cost of cure.

Medical Billing Advocates of America, Inc. and TrueFACS can restore the competition in the market place and break the monopoly of the insurance carriers that dominate the market. However the smaller insurance carriers will only be competitive when we are comparing apples to apples.

All hospital bills must be “True and Accurate” as well as “Fair and Reasonable” which means first they must be audited to assure that there are no coding errors or non-billable services or items. Second they must be audited to assure that all pricing is cost based.

By reducing the abusive billing (overcharges) and the outrageous price gouging:

Insurance carriers can reduce premiums and more people could afford insurance
Businesses would keep from closing their doors
Court systems can save a tremendous overhead on suing patients for what they shouldn’t be paying in the first place.
Medicare would not be in jeopardy
And most of all, consumers would not have to make the choice between medical care and putting food on their table.


Our Government needs to listen to the voices of the Advocates, the ones that have been standing up for consumers and businesses for 15 years.

Comments by Medical Billing Advocates of America, Inc. and TrueFACS LLC
www.billadvocates.com & www.thetruefacs.com

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