Health Plans For State Employees Use Medicare’s Hammer On Hospital Bills

States. They’re just as perplexed as the rest of us over the ever-rising cost of health care premiums.

Now some states –including Montana, North Carolina and Oregon — are moving to control costs of state employee health plans. Their strategy: Use Medicare reimbursement rates to recalibrate how they pay hospitals. If the gamble pays off, more private-sector employers could start doing the same thing.

“Government workers will get it first, then everyone else will see the savings and demand it,” says Glenn Melnick, a hospital finance expert and professor at the University of Southern California. “This is the camel’s nose. It will just grow and grow.”  Continue reading article here…

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