Humana charging $5.00 fee per paper check to provider

[lisaray]

It never ceases to amaze me how creative the Health insurance companies are regarding their attempts to squeeze out every available dollar from their members and also their providers.
Today I received a paper check in the mail for my provider and they deducted $5.00 from the total of the check it said CHECK FEE $5.00 so check should have been $66.44 and it says TOTAL CHECK AMOUNT after check fee $61.44
So here is my take on this and also Credit card processing fees.
* Health Insurance Companies are getting kickbacks for signing up providers for Virtual Credit Card payment
* Health Insurance Companies are charging providers for their company's administrative fees So the providers are paying the administrative fees of the insurance companies to pay them

THAT IS WRONG.
I do know their is some kind of bipartisan legislation that is trying to address this issue
I am sick of Zelis....
V pay

And now this new plot to charge providers for issuing paper checks. Problem is last time I signed up one of my providers for EFT Humana took 4-5 months to process the EFT request

The CSR told me that the reason for the $5 charge was for the envelope I don't think the cost of the envelope is $5.00
Anyone else had this happen
I will be signing up the provider for EFT It is just a pain to do it and time consuming and then they take their sweet time to process. This gets more infuriating by the day to accept insurance

ANY THOUGHTS? or EXPERIENCE
I am on the phone waiting to talk to someone in Provider Relations to discuss this ridiculous charge to the provider

 

[pvacanti]

I'm also sick of Zelis and Vpay, A lot of the smaller insurance companies go through Zelis which rack up the fees as well...

 

[lisaray]

Here is an article about some legislation that has been proposed and very interesting background information about a lobbyist who cajoled CMS to approve that fees could be assessed to providers.The most concerning issue is Zelis charging for direct deposit. That is bananas! One of the reps is a doctor from North Carolina and a urologist in New York is the person who started this rolling
Here is the linkhttps://www.propublica.org/article/lawmakers-propose-ban-insurance-doctors-fee-electronic-payments

 

[lisaray]

I'm also sick of Zelis and Vpay, A lot of the smaller insurance companies go through Zelis which rack up the fees as well...

JUST FYI Zelis the minute you run one of their credit card payments even though you have requested paper checks will put you right back on credit card payments The last time I had to call we had not run cc's on the provider but they said sometimes when a new payer comes up they resume credit card pymts ........

 

[catherinetinkey@entmedicalservices.org]

This is getting out of hand, are you in network with Humana, they have to reimburse your contracted fee? We are no longer in network with Humana because of their antics. We don't process credit card payments from insurance companies we already apply contracted adjustments. Yes we have to call and request a check but we are not paying merchant fees on top of adjustments. I am not aware of any other industry that has to jump through so many hoops to get reimbursed for their services. You have to print your own EOBs, you have to go to insurance websites to try to find any correspondence, some companies you have to go to sites and print off checks for you payment. Insurance companies tell their members to call providers to figure out their benefits. It wouldn't be an issue if there was one insurance company but with the multitude of companies it is out of control. We have a physician shortage, hospitals are closing because they can't survive in todays economic climate and yet every insurance company shows millions to billions in profit each quarter. Seriously something wrong with this picture.