“I’m trying to think of a polite word to describe the experience, but it has been just chaotic and inefficient,” said Dr. Andrea Brault, the head of the Emergency Department Practice Management Association, a physicians’ trade group. “It’s a costly, lengthy process.”

Insurers, however, charged that big physician groups — some of them owned by private equity investors — are trying to manipulate the process to squeeze out higher payments. “A small but significant number of bad actors” have flooded the system with cases “as a way to maximize revenue,” said Kelly Parsons, a spokesperson for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. “Should this trend continue, health care costs are likely to rise unnecessarily.”

Health insurance battling PE owned doctors over who gets to milk us.