The "Naughty List" You Want Your Company On

athenahealth (NASDAQ:ATHN) is out with its annual review of how quickly health insurers are paying the claims that doctors make for services. Based on 41 million medical charges, athenahealth said that the national health insurers were taking about a month to pay their bills.

Source: athenahealth.

It seems to me that investors shouldn't be too upset about where the companies they invest in fall on the list. After all, that's partially how insurance companies make money: by collecting interest on investments they make between when they collect the premium and when the claim is paid out. For them, the longer it takes to pay, the better.

Of course, the companies have to keep it within reason. Doctors and hospitals are willing to put up with delayed payments, but only to a certain degree. If an insurer stretched out payments far enough, doctors might be inclined to drop patients who use that insurance. The U.S. government's Medicare part B is paying charges in 33.4 days, so it seems that all these insurers are still in the reasonable range and probably aren't in danger of getting dropped.

athenahealth also tracks other items, like denial rate, which might affect how patients feel about their insurers, but I'm not sure how much that matters. Many people only have one choice from their employer, and those who do have multiple choices often pick based on price and coverage. The service provided by the insurer is often a distant third.

Health insurers are in an interesting industry where the end users -- doctors and patients -- often don't make the decision about which company to use. That makes any list that isn't based on price fairly meaningless.

A list of further Foolishness:

• An opportunity to jump on.
• 5 cash-rich companies at wonderful prices.
• Bargains for the next 10 years.