During this pandemic, Health Insurance companies are making record profits while at the same time increasing our premiums and denying our claims. Here’s how they did it:
Delayed or Deferred Care
When The pandemic lockdowns began, suddenly millions of people were staying home, avoiding or delaying their medical treatment. As we all know, this lasted for MONTHS, so while we all kept paying our monthly premiums, insurers simply didn’t need to pay out as much as they normally would, leading to gross profit margins in excess of 24% more than in 2019.
Pandemic Premiums
Even though the insurers had just seen record profits in the first three quarters of 2020 they still increased premiums by as much as 9.91% in Texas. Media stories of overrun hospitals and fears of soaring pandemic-related healthcare costs helped insurers to justify increasing their rates. But, in the fourth quarter, when the COVID waves hit the hardest and began to wreak havoc on our healthcare system, they deployed their most insidious tactic yet…
Daily Denials
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical claim denials have risen 11% nationwide, with the most denial rates found in the Pacific Coast (13.1%) and the Northeast (12.9%). The two regions that were hit hardest by the first wave of COVID-19 outbreaks.
Worse yet…the same study showed 86% of those denials were potentially avoidable due to bureaucratic delays. Unbelievably 48% of those claims cannot be recovered.
Plainly put, this allows insurers to keep money that should have made its way back to our frontline workers when they needed it the most.