When you have insurance, a claim should become purely a discussion between your insurance company and the health providers. It seems the current system needlessly inserts the patient into the middle, for the purpose of torturing him/her with paperwork, threats, bills, threats of bills, and the need to learn the intricacies of in-network, deductibles and co-pays, lifetime maximums, covered vs. uncovered procedures, etc. Instead of the insurance and health companies privately fighting it out between each other, they stick you in the middle, fighting through you as the proxy/punchingbag.

Wouldn't it be better if you went to the hospital, gave them your insurance information, and that's the last you ever were involved with anything regarding payment? Isn't that one of the reasons we have insurance?