NCar looks at new hospital health care payments

[fosterscik]

An interesting idea out of N. Carolina:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-...th-care-payments-1541340000?mod=hp_listc_pos4

The state’s employee health plan, which covers around 727,000 people including teachers, university workers and state police, wants to pay hospitals and doctors rates pegged to how much the federal Medicare insurance program for the elderly pays for medical services.

the new rates would average around 177% of Medicare’s fees, down from a current average of 213%. Such rates would save the state around $300 million a year and workers an additional approximately $66 million annually

Sounds like a sensible approach to me. Let the Feds set prices and piggyback on their rates. IMO it would have to help drive more rational pricing,
The article also states:

At least one other state, Montana, has implemented a plan similar to the North Carolina proposal.

Getting hospitals to accept its rates, which were set at around 230% to 240% of Medicare’s, “definitely was a game of chicken,” said Amy Jenks, the acting administrator who oversees the state’s employee health plan, which covers around 30,000 people.

One hospital was still holding out when the plan launched in July 2016, with the state initially offering to pay travel expenses for workers to get to alternative hospitals, Ms. Jenks said. The holdout hospital agreed to join a few weeks later.

Any members from Montana who can comment on this? I had not heard anything about this approach before reading this article.

 

[gerntz]

Innovation overall one size fits all works for me. Let freedom reign!

 

[sengsational]

Only in the realm of the US health care does having one group of people pay DOUBLE what another group pays, for the same service, seem like a reasonable solution.