This can't be good

[cchoukal]

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Huge CA hospital chain goes to flat-fee billing for anesthesia services?

http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Sutter-to-pay-46-million-to-settle-anesthesia-4955035.php

 

[aneftp]

46 million is a drop in the bucket.

It's like an Medical doctor agreeing to a $10000 fine.

Get back to us when they agree to take a 4.6 billion dollar settlement.

 

[IlDestriero]

If you're legitimately billing for time, as we all do, there would be no whistle blower and no settlement. No lawsuit at all.
Something else was going down there.

 

[cchoukal]

I guess I'm more interested in the part where they say the hospital is going to change the way it bills for anesthesia care to a flat fee. One step closer to employment in an area where private, physician-only practices are still the norm.

 

[Idiopathic]

dont we all expect payments to be bundled anyway soon?

 

[jwk]

So how does flat-fee case billing mesh with the RVU system used by every insuror and CMS? It's easy on a cash basis in a plastic surgery clinic - not so easy for non-cosmetic work.

 

[fabfive5]

That whistle-blower's life is ruined, no matter how much money they got from this.

 

[Impromptu]

I don't understand. I think they left a lot out of the story.

 

[IlDestriero]

I don't understand. I think they left a lot out of the story.

One of the other articles implied that they were charging a separate anesthesia fee (for supplies?) that was already built into the OR fee. Who knows. If nobody is going to jail or losing their license you can bet it was the hospital and not the physicians responsible for the fraud.

 

[secretasianman]

One of the other articles implied that they were charging a separate anesthesia fee (for supplies?) that was already built into the OR fee. Who knows. If nobody is going to jail or losing their license you can bet it was the hospital and not the physicians responsible for the fraud.

This has to do with how the hospital was billing for anesthesia supplies and ancillary support. It has nothing to do how individual anesthesiologists were billing.