White Coat Investor Podcast WCI #334: How You’re Being Ripped Off By Incompetent and Corrupt CMS Bureaucrats with Dr. Alex Shteynshlyuger
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Sep 28, 2023 Dr. Alex Shteynshlyuger educates doctors about payment processing fees, which cost them millions. They discuss regulations, third-party providers, and the impact on medical practices. The chapter also highlights the issue of prioritization in healthcare and the impact of incompetent and corrupt CMS bureaucrats.
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Hidden Cost of Payment Processor Fees
- Payment processor fees can consume about 3% of a medical practice's revenue, significantly eroding profits.
- These fees, charged by third-party companies, are illegal under HIPAA regulations but widely imposed anyway.
Zellis' Anticompetitive Role
- Zellis is a private equity owned company providing electronic payment services but shifts costs illegally onto physicians.
- Providers have no alternatives, creating a vertical antitrust issue where they are effectively extorted for these fees.
Personal Stand Against Fees
- Dr. Shteynshlyuger refuses to pay these fees and instead accepts paper checks in his practice.
- Echo Health secretly enrolled his account for no-cost EFT to silence his complaints, highlighting coercive tactics.