Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Only in Israel ...

does your health insurance pay you not to use it. I have private supplemental health insurance from work. The insurance will pay for things like surgery, etc. It turns out that the insurance companies will pay you not to use it. In other words, if someone needs surgery, they can do it through their Kupat Cholim or through their private insurance. The private insurance will pay the surgeon about 5 times more then the Kupat Cholim. Given that, the doctors always want you to use your insurance. To combat this, the insurance comapny will pay you half of what they would have paid the doctor if you don't use the insurance and instead do it through the Kupat Cholim. For example if they would pay the surgeon 4000 shekels for the operation, they will pay you 2000 to do it through the kupat cholim. This way you win and they win, you make 2000 shekels and the insurance company saves 2000 shekels. The only one who loses is the doctor.

Do such games go on anywhere else in the world?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In the USA, doctors make false claims to government insurance companies to collect fees on surgeries not performed.