A Commonwealth Fund-supported survey found that physician practices spent on average nearly three weeks annually interacting with health plans, at an estimated annual cost to practices of $31 billion, or $68,274 per physician, per year. Another Fund-supported study found that billing and insurance tasks in a large medical group practice consume $85,276 per full-time-equivalent physician—10 percent of operating revenue. Standardizing health plan benefits and billing procedures would reduce administrative complexity and costs, the authors said.
