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$22,000 Per Hour: Assistants Use a Legislative Loophole to Outearn Surgeons
The New York Times • • business
Key Points:
- Surgeons typically spend around three hours performing robotic prostate cancer surgeries, controlling the robot via a console while an assistant manages the robot's arms and instruments at the bedside.
- Health insurers generally pay assistants about 16 percent of the surgeon’s earnings for their role in these surgeries.
- However, data shows that some surgical assistants earn up to 25 times more than the surgeons in certain cases across the U.S.
- This discrepancy arises from assistants exploiting a law designed to protect patients from surprise medical bills by allowing out-of-network providers to seek arbitration for higher payments from insurers.
- The arbitration process enables these assistants to secure significantly higher fees than typical health plan reimbursements, inflating their earnings.
