Reasonable value medical benefit plan

Abstract

A self-insured or self funded medical benefit plan is provided by an employer wherein the self-insured medical benefit plan is governed by ERISA, and wherein the employer who is providing the medical benefit plan is 100 percent responsible for payment for medical services provided to an employee, receiving the benefit of the medical benefit plan, to a medical service provider for covered medical services and products. The medical benefit plan and method for providing the medical benefit plan determines a reasonable value for the medical services provided by a medical service provider to a participant of the plan, reprices a bill or claim from the medical service provider, and protects the participant / employee under ERISA from attempted collections of additional moneys that a medical service provider may believe is owed for the medical services but were not paid by the exemplary self insured medical benefit plan.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 841,507, filed Aug. 20, 2007 and entitled REASONABLE VALUE SELF INSURED MEDICAL BENEFIT PLAN, which is incorporated herein by reference.TECHNICAL FIELD[0002]Embodiments of the present invention are related to medical benefit plans provided by an employer for the benefit of the employees and their immediate families. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention are related to self insured medical benefit plans, including but not limited to those that fall under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the administration of such plans, methods of use or operation; and various benefits provided to participants thereof.BACKGROUND[0003]The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) governs various types of employee welfare benefit plans. One purpose of the act was to create an incentive for employers to offer health care benefits to their em...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0022]Again, in various embodiments, the employee is not required to pay the medical service provider for the medical services provided by the medical service provider. Instead, the EMBP provides a benefit to the plan beneficiary of paying 100 percent of the reasonable value for the medical service provider's bills. Furthermore, an exemplary EMBP, as discussed and described in its various embodiments herein, will protect both the employer and plan beneficiaries under ERISA such that the plan beneficiary is indemnified against attempted collections from a medical service provider who attempts to collect amounts that may arguably exceed the reasonable value of the medical services provided or the repriced amount that was paid by the EMBP.

Problems solved by technology

This risk-bearing may be limited by the self-insured or self-funded plan purchasing stop-loss insurance and / or re-insurance for excessive payments.

Thus, the self insured employer assumes the risk of funding the first $30,000 of claims for each of its employees for a given year or time period.

The various previous medical benefit plans have allowed an employer to continue to afford and offer health care benefits to their employees. but the affordability is now becoming questionable.

In the 1980s health maintenance organizations (HMO) were used in an attempt to contain the costs of health care, but these organizations did not always prove to be an effective means for providing, delivering, or paying for medical services.

As a result, PPOs and Medical Service Provider members thereof have inflated their charges for medical services to such an extent that they are no longer providing a “real” discount for many medical services that are provided to the employees of self-insured employers.

The commercial payer's and employer's ability to offer medical benefits under a PPO network system plan is being strained because the charges that are being passed onto the commercial payers and employers do not have a rational relationship with the actual cost or a reasonable profit margin for delivery of the medical services that are being paid per the PPO network discount.

As such, PPO networks are no longer an asset to an employer and have turned into a detriment because the cost of the medical services under the PPO network plans has escalated so high that in many instances there is not a real discount for the medical services provided.

Now that PPO medical service providers are using their PPO contracts to circumvent ERISA and claim that they have a separate legal right to recover unpaid charges (the excessive charges) being charged for services under certain language in a PPO network service contract, the self insured employers are encountering new problems that were not present when the PPO networks were first established.

This problem with medical service providers is especially impacting self insured employers who do not have the negotiation power or leverage of the large PPO network service providers because the self insured employer can only channel a limited number of patients to the medical service providers.

To date, the medical service providers continue to be very unreasonable with respect to cost shifting.

Patients may be billed via an inappropriate bundling of charges, such as paying for an entire box of syringes when only one syringe was used.

In many circumstances the medical service providers acknowledge that they are engaging in unreasonable billing tactics, but will not negotiate for lower medical service charges with a TPA who administers an employer sponsored medical benefit plan.

In some circumstances, the medical service provider, who is relying on the PPO contract language, will threaten to charge the patient / employee for any unpaid medical charges by the medical benefit plan.

One can imagine the amount of stress created when a patient receives a $40,000 hospital bill because the PPO network medical benefit plan, which their self insured employer is part of, believes that the charges are excessive and did not pay and because the medical service provider will not participate in a good faith resolution of the problem with the TPA.

When there is a problem or dispute between the TPA / plan and a medical service provider, the PPO tends to remain neutral due to its conflict of interest with respect to both parties.

In many circumstances, the PPO tends to be adverse to the TPA, because the PPO does not want to lose the medical service provider from its PPO network of medical service providers.

Self insured employers may eventually have to cease using PPO medical service networks to control medical costs because the PPO medical service networks are no longer advantageous as a means for reducing or controlling medical costs incurred by the self insured employer's medical benefit plan.

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