I already gave the example. I visit the Doc, he bills my insurance $60 (paper work required) they modify the price based on their provider agreement with the Doc, pay him their fraction, and send me a bill notifying me that I must pay the remainder. The Doc also sends me a bill for the remainder of the adjusted price. I mail him a check.
Actually the process is more like this:
- The doctor enters the charge lines into his system
- His system electronically transmits claims to insurance carrier
- Insurance carrier electronically transmits payment information to your doctor, where they automatically are posted to your account.
- When the payment auto posts to your account, a statement is generated.
Documenting this transaction, including all info required until the time your statement is mailed, in a clinic that is set up correctly, should be complete before you walk out the door.
Now compare that to a drip to Safeway where I buy $60 of goods, and ask yourself what exactly your metric of efficiency is.
Only if you conveniently ignore substantial portions of the transaction that you didn't ignore in your physician example.
They're two different kinds of businesses, and the complexities are in different parts of the transaction. For example, Safeway has to relieve its inventory of the items you purchased. They will have electronic systems that decide whether more of any item needs to be purchased, purchase orders will be generated electronically and submitted to the vendor, when the order gets in it must be stocked, etc.
It is pretty useless compare the accounting for a physicians office with that of Safeway, but I can certainly do it if I choose to. |
