{"id":10717,"date":"2018-06-20T08:33:46","date_gmt":"2018-06-20T12:33:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=10717"},"modified":"2018-06-20T08:33:46","modified_gmt":"2018-06-20T12:33:46","slug":"holy-cow-moment-changes-how-montanas-state-health-plan-does-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=10717","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Holy Cow\u2019 Moment Changes How Montana\u2019s State Health Plan Does Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Julie Appleby for Kaiser Health News)<\/p>\n<p>Marilyn Bartlett, the director administrator of Montana\u2019s Health Care and Benefits Division, recalls thinking \u201choly cow\u201d when she got an urgent directive from state legislators in late 2014: \u201cYou have to get these costs under control, or else.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Increasing health care costs in the state workers\u2019 health plan were helping hold down workers\u2019 wages. The plan\u2019s financial reserves were dwindling, heading for negative territory. <a href=\"https:\/\/khn.org\/news\/holy-cow-moment-changes-how-montanas-state-health-plan-does-business\/?utm_campaign=KHN%3A%20First%20Edition&amp;utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=63899645&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9UNhBsGh7a9OHYux8XvWJGQPti_jptiry7kO79-ilB6nsnJSKxmeAXhLNwveeV9dQeSVeBZYx9FgJyiOP5Na347ldn5Q&amp;_hsmi=63899645\">Continue reading article here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; line-height: 1.6; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit;\">Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit national health policy news service that is part of the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor; color: #444444; text-transform: none; line-height: 1.6; text-indent: 0px; letter-spacing: normal; font-family: 'Open Sans', serif; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; word-spacing: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; font-stretch: inherit; background-color: #ffffff; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-899\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 129px) 100vw, 129px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-300x156.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-1024x533.png 1024w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1-390x205.png 390w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/khn-logo1.png 1600w\" alt=\"\" width=\"129\" height=\"67\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<pre>Notice: The link provided above connects readers to the full content of the posted article. The URL (internet address) for this link is valid on the posted date; medicarereport.org cannot guarantee the duration of the link\u2019s validity. Also, the opinions expressed in these postings are the viewpoints of the original source and are not explicitly endorsed by AMAC, Inc.; the AMAC Foundation, Inc.; or medicarereport.org.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(By Julie Appleby for Kaiser Health News) Marilyn Bartlett, the director administrator of Montana\u2019s Health Care and Benefits Division, recalls<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care-finance","category-health-care-redesign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10718,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10717\/revisions\/10718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}