Anyone has the opportunity to sit down with an insurance company and TRY to negotiate receiving different rates. However, this is rarely successful unless you are the only one in a geographic area providing that service.
For example, my friend is a pediatric urologist and refused to accept the ridiculously low rates from insurance carriers for the very complicated procedures he performs. His services were sorely needed in his area and he was the only doctor capable of providing those services. Therefore, several insurance companies met with him and decided to pay him the fees he requested.
I don't know the details of the foot/ankle orthopedists in your area, and you probably don't know the details either. But without negotiating a "special" contract, the fees should be the same.
The only exception I know of to this rule is capitated plans. In Pennsylvania, "podiatry" foot/ankle services are capitated with certain HMO plans. If a primary care doctor refers one of these HMO patients to a DPM that is "contracted" to him as a capitated provider, then ALL podiatric services including surgery are covered under that capitation. So when you receive your monthly capitation check, it covers EVERY patient for EVERY service. So if you never see a patient on your capitation list or if you perform major reconstruction surgery, you receive the same check.
On the other hand, if that primary care provider sent the same patient to an orthopedic surgeon for the same procedure, the orthopedic surgeon gets paid "fee for service".
This HAS been challenged by the Pennsylvania Podiatric Medical Association with no positive results. The only way to really fight this system would be for ALL DPM's to drop out of the programs, but that will NEVER happen, because these doctors love receiving that big monthly check, since it's something that can "count on". It's a corner they've backed themselves into and now won't get out.
Podiatry can only blame themselves for accepting this situation. If we ALL rejected it when it was first proposed many years ago, there would be no such thing as "capitation" and we would all be paid fee for service for every visit, similar to other specialties.
