Medical Billing and SICKO's Impact

As a professional Medical Biller, I feel that it is my responsibility to stay current with our country's health care system and that does include the viewing of Michael Moore's movie SICKO - scheduled for release today, June 29, 2007. Regardless of one's political views, I encourage billers to place their (political) opinions on the back burner while viewing this film. Even if you have not been a fan of Michael Moore and his previous documentaries, the importance of seeing THIS Michael Moore's movie should be of great importance as an active member of the medical billing industry. Many of us can agree that our health care system is (politely) chaotic, regardless of where we fall in the political spectrum. Remaining a TOP medical biller requires staying current with ALL heath care news from ALL sources and sides. I happen to be a fan of Michael Moore and of his previous documentaries. I am sure that, like his last, Moore will offer his usual mix of cynical humor contrasted with piercingly sobering personal narratives, which brings both a chuckle and an "oh my" type of reaction. I understand that Moore traces the START of our health care crisis all the way back to the early 1970's to the presidency of Richard Nixon - pressured to launch the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) system. That HMO system is the largest, internationally, of for-profit medicine. That HMO system is also the direct cause of phenomena like NO-insurance, UNDER-insurance and toppling health care standards. The direct result has been a continuous downhill tumble, crashing under the health care standards of similarly wealthy countries around the world - most of which have government sponsored and paid universal heath care structures. As many billers, I too hope to remain part of a solution toward improving the processing of healthcare claims and insurance follow up - ultimately getting practices paid. I love what I do. I especially love the glee evident on my client's faces while they witness the immediate, positive impact made to their practice by choosing to work with my medical billing firm and me. I, too, encourage billers to use this film as a conversation point with prospective clients - to point out where the system falls down in places where billers can pick things UP.