Blog: Golden Rule, balance billing and other outrages

The Health Care Blog has a vivid rant today on Golden Rule, a perennially low-cost and shady provider of individual health policies that was acquired by United Health Care awhile back to make it an instant player in high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts. Apparently, Golden Rule claims to its customers that it has negotiated rates with providers, but its contracts with providers allow them to balance-bill the customer if the negotiated rate isn't enough--and why should it be, under the circumstances? To top it off, the customer isn't told he'll be getting a bill from the provider--it's a "trade secret." UHC claims to be cleaning up Golden Rule, but THCB is dubious, to say the least. While balance-billing makes sense if a consumer expects it, springing fresh bills on a consumer can't be reasonably justified.  Besides, what kind of collections rates are providers going to get from consumers who haven't planned for the expense?

- take a look at the blog post