Comment by ecstaticpirate
Comment by ecstaticpirate 3 days ago
Curious as to why this contract agreement needs to be secret. Can it not be reverse engineered somehow? I'm imagining there's a set number of codes per doctor-insurer combination, or are these codes uniquely generated for each patient?
> Curious as to why this contract agreement needs to be secret.
Information asymmetry.
Because if Dr. X could see what Dr. Y is being reimbursed for procedure Z, and they learn that Y receives more, then in the next contract negotiation round, Dr. X will try to get more (or at least Dr. Y's amount) for procedure Z from the insurance company.
If none of the insurance counter-parties are aware of what the others are paying, they don't know if they are agreeing to less than they could have received.