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In an effort to cut medical costs health insurance companies may be going to the source: your doctor.

At least, in the case of UnitedHealthCare this appears to be the case. As today's article in the New York Times says, in light of rising costs and a new public awareness of health care, insurance companies like United health are looking to minimize time spent in hospitals.

Specifically, United health insurance is locked in a financial dispute with Continuum Health Partners, a "consortium of five New York hospitals," including Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center.

United has demanded that hospitals notify the insurance company within 24 hours after a patient's admission, or lose reimbursements by up to one half.

Continuum Health argues that this is just one way for health insurance companies to overburden hospitals with administrative tasks, and minimize their own costs by draining hospital funding.

All of this is happening at the same time that health care legislation seems to have hit a major stumbling block, with Democrats losing their filibuster-proof majority.

But even if only some tenets of the legislation are passed, it's likely that health insurance companies stand to lose a lot of money. One key term of the bill involves forcing insurance companies to cover all applicants, regardless of any pre-existing conditions.

The money they lose will need to be made up somehow, and if The Times is correct, it could be made up in their intervention between patients and their doctors.