Why doctors don’t like insurance – Healthcare Economist

When seeking medical care in the US, paying out of pocket can often result in a discount compared to using insurance. But why is this the case? Doctors actually prefer cash payments over insurance due to the slow, unpredictable, and burdensome nature of insurance payments. A study by Sahni et al. (2024) highlights the inefficiencies in the US healthcare payment system, with high transaction costs and lengthy processing times. Implementing more efficient financial transaction systems could lead to significant cost savings of up to $60 billion. The authors suggest a combination of organizational and industry-wide interventions to achieve these savings. Learn more about this topic in the full paper linked above.