Aetna: ‘We’ve Never Seen’ Such Rate Increases From Hospitals
One of the most contentious front lines in the health-care cost wars is between hospitals and private insurers. That battle zone has gotten particularly hot in recent contract negotiations over reimbursement rates that hospitals are demanding from the insurers.
“We’ve never seen the kind of increases we’re seeing right now” from hospitals, Aetna President Mark Bertolini says in a WSJ article this morning. From a typical rate increase of about 5% five years ago, he says Aetna this year has granted rate increases of more than 20% to 50 hospital operators the insurer considered “must have” choices to continue offering consumers.
Hospitals say that low Medicare rates and cuts to Medicaid are forcing them to cover their costs elsewhere and that more often means from private insurers. They say low reimbursement rates have drained hospitals for years and have been made worse recently with more uninsured Americans needing uncompensated care.
Health insurers point to data saying that hospital markets are 47% more concentrated today than 13 years ago. Insurers blame big hospital systems for buying up smaller medical centers and using their dominance in a region to demand big rate increases, the WSJ says.
That market-clout issue was front and center in Boston yesterday […]
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