Tigerle,
I grew up in a small town in the mid-west, which affords me the use of lots of colorful colloquialisms
I've submitted a claim to the insurance for authorization, so hopefully they will cover it. I had the same logic. Wouldn't they want to if it is cheaper overall? But with these big corporations often times if something is not already standardized in the playbook they try to avoid dealing with it.
The insurance doesn't profit, but the entire medical system does, which is run like a for-profit corporation. So, you're right that the doctor's benefit from this system. (Some, not all. My husband is a pediatric endocrinologist and makes a salary on the lower end of the MD spectrum. Diabetes patients are the bread and butter of his profession and most of their care is dealt with at home - so no regular billing for office visits.)
Do you expect that if the doctor's have lower debt burdens that they will, out of the goodness of their hearts, take a salary cut? Some doctors choose their particular profession strictly because of the take home pay incentive. The current system allows some to inflate their take home pay by gaming the billing system, sending unnecessary charges to the insurance, who then pay the medical facility. All of this drives up out-of-pocket costs as well as insurance costs.
