What Does It Cost Physician Practices To Interact With Health Insurance Plans? A new way of looking at administrative costs—one key point of comparison in debating public and private health reform approaches.

Physicians have long expressed dissatisfaction with the time they and their staffs spend interacting with health plans. However, little information exists about the ex- tent of these interactions. We conducted a national survey on this subject of physicians and practice administrators. Physicians reported spending three hours weekly interacting with plans; nursing and clerical staff spent much larger amounts of time. When time is con- verted to dollars, we estimate that the national time cost to practices of interactions with plans is at least $23 billion to $31 billion each year. (Health Affairs 28, no. 4 (2009): w533-