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When the Health Blog has to go to the doctor, we fork over our $20 co-pay on the spot and usually any invoice that comes after within 30 days. Turns out that’s faster than it takes nearly two-third of major health plans, with their billions of dollars in reserves, to do just that.

For the fourth year in a row, Athenahealth, a provider of online medical billing services to doctors and hospitals, has crunched some $7 billion in claims data to rank 172 national, regional and government health plans on how quickly and accurately they pay up. Check the rankings and news release.

The results, for some, weren’t stellar. New York’s Medicaid program, a consistent bottom-of-the-pack finisher in previous years, took an average 161 days — almost half a year — to reimburse doctors, according to the rankings. It fully paid or resolved the claim on the first submission just 62% of the time

Overall, Athenahealth said national insurers’ performance improved from last year. They paid 5.3% faster and denied 9% fewer medical claims from the prior year. Perhaps that offers a glimmer of hope for one costly sliver of the U.S. health care system: A study published this month by the Commonwealth Fund and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Changes in Health Care Financing and Organization Initiative estimated the administrative dealings of physician practice cost $31 billion annually — nearly 7% of U.S. spending for physician and clinical services.

Among the seven largest commercial insurers, Humana ranked best, with an average claims-paying time of 26.6 days, while Coventry Health Care came in last, with 38.5 days. (Coventry couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.)

Doctors may wonder why more of them aren’t practicing in Rhode Island. The state’s Blue Cross Blue Shield, which dominates the local insurance market, blew away the pack nationwide when it comes to paying claims, taking an average 15 days.

Image: iStockphoto

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