(Edit for additional tidbit: to do the actual write-down for the patient portions, deductibles...you would 1099-misc the patient. Have any of you ever received a 1099 from a medical provider that forgave your bill? No? Not surprised. Incredibly rare. )
Insurance company contracts require you don't disclose your reimbursement rates. They also require you 'charge' them the same you charge others (those top line fee tables for each CPT code.) Then, to throw the entire thing out of whack, some (especially Medicaid/ Medicare) only reimburse at a percentage, say, 18% of what you charge.
For you to be able to take the 18% insurance, you have to ensure you are billing roughly 5x what you NEED to recoup. Then you have to charge every patient (therefore their insurance company) that amount so that you are in line with ALL your contracts.
The write downs are not tax deductible. The only thing that is is when a patient fails to make their copay, coinsurance, or deductible amounts that you are required (by your contracts) to make a good-faith attempt to collect.
You will find that most small health providers are amicable to sharing our ACTUAL prices (the amounts we internally know that we MUST recoup, on average to stay afloat) but it would break our contracts to do so. We have to offer 'cash discounts' (which is roughly what we ACTUALLY Charge) to you if you pay upfront so we don't have to deal with months of claims adjudication and third party costs to get your insurance company to pay.
The transparency is fine. The insurance companies are going to be the ones that cause hell. They'll use this opportunity to flatten small-medium sized providers that have little negotiating clout on their contracts.
Don't get me started on 'teaching' hospitals that go on and on about their 'lower rates' (how much they charge at the top line) when at the end they get 2x-4.5x the actual negotiated pay because they are attached to a medical school. That's altogether another form of higher-learning taxpayer wealth transfer.
Insurance company contracts require you don't disclose your reimbursement rates. They also require you 'charge' them the same you charge others (those top line fee tables for each CPT code.) Then, to throw the entire thing out of whack, some (especially Medicaid/ Medicare) only reimburse at a percentage, say, 18% of what you charge.
For you to be able to take the 18% insurance, you have to ensure you are billing roughly 5x what you NEED to recoup. Then you have to charge every patient (therefore their insurance company) that amount so that you are in line with ALL your contracts.
The write downs are not tax deductible. The only thing that is is when a patient fails to make their copay, coinsurance, or deductible amounts that you are required (by your contracts) to make a good-faith attempt to collect.
You will find that most small health providers are amicable to sharing our ACTUAL prices (the amounts we internally know that we MUST recoup, on average to stay afloat) but it would break our contracts to do so. We have to offer 'cash discounts' (which is roughly what we ACTUALLY Charge) to you if you pay upfront so we don't have to deal with months of claims adjudication and third party costs to get your insurance company to pay.
The transparency is fine. The insurance companies are going to be the ones that cause hell. They'll use this opportunity to flatten small-medium sized providers that have little negotiating clout on their contracts.
Don't get me started on 'teaching' hospitals that go on and on about their 'lower rates' (how much they charge at the top line) when at the end they get 2x-4.5x the actual negotiated pay because they are attached to a medical school. That's altogether another form of higher-learning taxpayer wealth transfer.
Insurance company contracts require you don't disclose your reimbursement rates. They also require you 'charge' them the same you charge others (those top line fee tables for each CPT code.) Then, to throw the entire thing out of whack, some (especially Medicaid/ Medicare) only reimburse at a percentage, say, 18% of what you charge.
For you to be able to take the 18% insurance, you have to ensure you are billing roughly 5x what you NEED to recoup. Then you have to charge every patient (therefore their insurance company) that amount so that you are in line with ALL your contracts.
The write downs are not tax deductible. The only thing that is is when a patient fails to make their copay, coinsurance, or deductible amounts that you are required (by your contracts) to make a good-faith attempt to collect.
You will find that most small health providers are amicable to sharing our ACTUAL prices (the amounts we internally know that we MUST recoup, on average to stay afloat) but it would break our contracts to do so. We have to offer 'cash discounts' to you if you pay upfront so we don't have to deal with months of claims adjudication and third party costs to get your insurance company to pay.
The transparency is fine. The insurance companies are going to be the ones that cause hell. They'll use this opportunity to flatten small-medium sized providers that have little negotiating clout on their contracts.
Don't get me started on 'teaching' hospitals that go on and on about their 'lower rates' (how much they charge at the top line) when at the end they get 2x-4.5x the actual negotiated pay because they are attached to a medical school. That's altogether another form of higher-learning taxpayer wealth transfer.
Insurance company contracts require you don't disclose your reimbursement rates. They also require you 'charge' them the same you charge others. Then, to throw the entire thing out of whack, some (especially Medicaid/ Medicare) only reimburse at a percentage, say, 18% of what you charge.
For you to be able to take the 18% insurance, you have to ensure you are billing roughly 5x what you NEED to recoup. Then you have to charge every patient (therefore their insurance company) that amount so that you are in line with ALL your contracts.
The write downs are not tax deductible. The only thing that is is when a patient fails to make their copay, coinsurance, or deductible amounts that you are required (by your contracts) to make a good-faith attempt to collect.
You will find that most small health providers are amicable to sharing our ACTUAL prices (the amounts we internally know that we MUST recoup, on average to stay afloat) but it would break our contracts to do so. We have to offer 'cash discounts' to you if you pay upfront so we don't have to deal with months of claims adjudication and third party costs to get your insurance company to pay.
The transparency is fine. The insurance companies are going to be the ones that cause hell. They'll use this opportunity to flatten small-medium sized providers that have little negotiating clout on their contracts.
Don't get me started on 'teaching' hospitals that go on and on about their 'lower rates' (how much they charge at the top line) when at the end they get 2x-4.5x the actual negotiated pay because they are attached to a medical school. That's altogether another form of higher-learning taxpayer wealth transfer.
Insurance company contracts require you don't disclose your reimbursement rates. They also require you 'charge' them the same you charge others. Then, to throw the entire thing out of whack, some (especially Medicaid/ Medicare) only reimburse at a percentage, say, 18% of what you charge.
For you to be able to take the 18% insurance, you have to ensure you are billing roughly 5x what you NEED to recoup. Then you have to charge every patient (therefore their insurance company) that amount so that you are in line with ALL your contracts.
The write downs are not tax deductible. The only thing that is is when a patient fails to make their copay, coinsurance, or deductible amounts that you are required (by your contracts) to make a good-faith attempt to collect.
You will find that most small health providers are amicable to sharing our ACTUAL prices (the amounts we internally know that we MUST recoup, on average to stay afloat) but it would break our contracts to do so. We have to offer 'cash discounts' to you if you pay upfront so we don't have to deal with months of claims adjudication and third party costs to get your insurance company to pay.
The transparency is fine. The insurance companies are going to be the ones that cause hell. They'll use this opportunity to flatten small-medium sized providers that have little negotiating clout on their contracts.
Don't get me started on 'teaching' hospitals that go on and on about their 'lower rates' (how much they charge at the top line) when at the end they get 2x-4.5x the actual negotiated pay because they are attached to a medical school. That's altogether another form of higher-learning taxpayer wealth transfer.