Dermatologists are also notorious for charging insurance companies too often. Insurance companies have retaliated by limiting the amount of dermatologists they cover in order to have less payout. But insurance companies have not been kind to either dermatologist or patient. By taking dermatologists off of their plans they have created “narrow networks” and it has become harder for patients to afford the coverage they need. These narrow networks are dropping the most expensive dermatologists and many contracts are being “terminated without cause”. Organizations like American Academy of Dermatology Association (AADA) have been advocating against insurance companies being allowed to remove doctors without cause, even going to Congress in early 2014.
This unearthed a whole other area for the WH team to explore. They reached out to the American Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) to see if they could explain the insurance companies’ actions. They insisted that it was “specific network configurations” and that it was not targeted. However a more thorough look into the networks showed that some companies have continued to list dermatologists that are no longer on the plan, have moved, have retired, or even who have passed away. This is all an effort to make insurance plans appear to provide more coverage than they actually do.
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