November 24th, 2008

An article in Sunday’s Tribune-Review features comments from those around the state who are urging Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario to disapprove the proposed merger between insurance companies Highmark, Inc. and Independence Blue Cross.

Some excerpts:

Dr. Joe Esposito has been a surgeon for nearly two-thirds of his 56 years… He has one word for state Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario, who in late January is expected to make the final decision concerning the largest insurance deal in state history…”Don’t,” approve the deal, he says.

…

Recent surveys indicate physicians already feel pressured by insurers to alter the way they treat patients. A survey conducted by the Medical Society of the State of New York found that 90 percent of physicians surveyed felt they had to change the way they treated a patient based on insurance company restrictions.

And 87 percent of respondents to the New York survey agreed with the statement that sometimes they are pressured to prescribe a course of treatment based on cost rather than on what may be best for that patient.

…

“Most physicians would love to spend more time with their patients. Unfortunately, we’re not paid for the time we spend with patients, we’re paid by the procedures we do,” said Dr. Susan J. Kressly, a pediatrician who heads a two-physician practice in the Philadelphia suburb of Warrington. “Our patient visits are often dictated by insurance expectations, which are not always in the patient’s best interests.”

Kressly added that the proposed Highmark-Independence Blue Cross merger gives her nightmares.

“IBC already an oligopoly in the Greater Philadelphia area, they know they control the majority of patients in the area, and it leaves physicians without any measurable negotiating power,” she said.

Visit the Tribune-Review for more warnings against the merger.