California workers’ comp doctors, keep screening your phone calls. Mitchell International, on behalf of the Municipal Pooling Authority (MPA) and Insurance Company of the West (ICW), is calling to convince you to accept reduced reimbursement rates — in exchange for literally nothing.

In addition to hustling for Liberty Mutual, Mitchell representatives unwittingly called daisyCollect to “settle” bills (read: ask for discounts below fee schedule) for the claims administrators named above.

Apparently unaware that daisyCollect exists to improve practice’s bottom lines, rather than shower dubious middleperson companies with our providers’ revenue, Mitchell thought they’d shake the ol’ daisyTree to see what fell out. Nothing did.  

Why does Mitchell torture doctors to ‘settle’ bills for less than the rate allowed by California fee schedules? Because, it must work. Doctors, “no” is a complete sentence.

Mitchell: ‘Optimizing’ Discount Chaos By ‘Stacking’ PPOs

Complex webs of payer-side entities — which include claims administrators, Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), Medical Provider Networks (MPNs), and others — talk doctors into discount contracts, then subsequently lease and otherwise share those contractual discounts with other payers, thereby creating a downward revenue spiral for doctors.

For payers (and their side-kick vendors), simply keeping track of these many transferable discounts evidently requires a fair bit of technology expertise. Not to worry; Mitchell openly advertises its multi-network infrastructure, designed to source the lowest possible payments for treating injured workers. Mitchell offers clients access to the Mitchell Mosaic, “a proprietary approach to sourcing and stacking PPO networks” [emphasis added].

Below, Mitchell touts its “proprietary approach” to finding the best way to circumvent paying doctors the rates established by the Official Medical Fee Schedule (OMFS).

Mitchell Reaches Out for MPA and ICW

Evidently, Mitchell’s “hybrid approach” to squeezing a discount out of a doctor includes many telephone calls. As we reported previously, after providers submit bills to claims administrators, Mitchell representatives call the providers to negotiate payment amounts below OMFS rates. Mitchell calls from (888) 268-0695, a phone number associated with National Health Quest, Inc.

On April 7, 2022, a Mitchell representative called daisyCollect on behalf of MPA, and left the first voicemail asking to “settle a bill,” which daisyCollect representatives learned is code for “requesting an unwarranted discount.” On April 8, Mitchell left a second voicemail with the same request on behalf of ICW. Mitchell followed up with a third voicemail on MPA’s behalf on April 11.

As daisyCollect discovered when Mitchell called on behalf of Liberty Mutual, Mitchell offers “expedited” payment to tempt providers into accepting lower reimbursements. For Liberty Mutual, Mitchell asked daisyCollect to accept 70% OMFS rates for payment within 10 days.

For their part, MPA pays daisyBill clients in an average of 12 days, while ICW pays in an average 9 days. Considering those numbers — and the fact that California law mandates payment of provider e-bills within 15 working days — Mitchell’s offer could only tempt the uninformed.

If you’re reading this, consider yourself among the informed, and just think of Mitchell’s number, (888) 268-0695, the way you think of SPAM.

Protect your practice. daisyBill helps providers get fast, accurate reimbursement for treating injured workers, at state fee schedule rates. Reach out to learn how we can help.

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