Medical providers, including anesthesiologists, face ongoing challenges when it comes to collecting medical debts from many Americans, according to a new blog post from founder and CEO of MiraMed Global and president and CEO of Anesthesia Business Consultants, Tony Mira.
According to Mr. Mira, anesthesiologists face three unique challenges in getting medical debts paid.
First, since anesthesiologists and CRNAs do not have ongoing relationships with their patients, they have to rely on hospitals to collect patient information for submitting claims.
Second, patients tend to view medical bills as lower priority than other bills like rent, utilities or car payments.
Third, there are few consistent ways for anesthesiologists to collect outstanding bills from patients.
Another issue for many patients is the overall cost. Though insurance often covers 80 percent of anesthesia bills, paying for 20 percent can still be too much for many Americans.
The No. 1 reason for bankruptcy in the U.S. is medical bills, according to Mr. Mira's post.