{"id":11655,"date":"2018-10-02T08:22:07","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T12:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=11655"},"modified":"2018-10-02T08:22:07","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T12:22:07","slug":"a-tough-negotiator-proves-employers-can-bargain-down-health-care-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/?p=11655","title":{"rendered":"A Tough Negotiator Proves Employers Can Bargain Down Health Care Prices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>(By Marshall Allen for\u00a0ProPublica and co-published by NPR)<\/p>\n<p>Marilyn Bartlett took a deep breath, drew herself up to her full 5 feet and a smidge, and told the assembled handful of Montana officials that she had a radical strategy to bail out the state&#8217;s foundering benefit plan for its 30,000 employees and their families.<\/p>\n<p>The officials were listening. Their health plan was going broke, with losses that could top $50 million in just a few years. It needed a savior, but none of the applicants to be its new administrator had wowed them. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/in-montana-a-tough-negotiator-proved-employers-do-not-have-to-pay-so-much-for-health-care\">Continue reading article here&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3902\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"152\" height=\"55\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo.png 152w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/NPR-logo-150x55.png 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 152px) 100vw, 152px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ProPublica-logo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6975 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ProPublica-logo-300x58.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"58\" srcset=\"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ProPublica-logo-300x58.png 300w, https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/ProPublica-logo.png 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/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 Marshall Allen for\u00a0ProPublica and co-published by NPR) Marilyn Bartlett took a deep breath, drew herself up to her full<\/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-11655","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\/11655","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=11655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11656,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11655\/revisions\/11656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medicarereport.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}