Ever wonder why your physician recommends you to an out of network facility or refers you to a physician that is not in your insurance network? Aggravated by this? I challenge you to think of this situation another way. The easy path for your physician is to refer you within the network. He or she are likely operating under threats from the insurer or their network (usually controlled by a big hospital that may or may not employee them) but choose at some peril to their livelihood to refer you outside of the network. Could it be that they believe that the right (best) place for you is out of the network and they are just wanting the best for you…that the best at a given specialty or field do not reside in the network in which they work? Isn’t that what you want your physician to do? Get you to the right people or to the right (best) facility? Many physicians are risking their position in a network trying to do the best thing for their patients. Hooray for these heros for doing the right thing…not the easy thing….a future post on the hostile takeovers of many physician practices by big hospitals coming soon.
G. Keith Smith, M.D.
