Rational Reimbursement in Health Care is Needed Now

Recently the President convened a group of insurance executives and business owners to the White House to discuss the current state of healthcare and to reinforce his desire to provide healthcare to more Americans.  In a recent post on June 22^nd by Inside Health Reform stated:

"All sides in Monday's meeting involving President Barack Obama, health insurance executives and state regulators agreed that more needs to be done to confront rising health care costs, including addressing pharmaceutical costs, but the conversation did not produce concrete plans, participants said. One participant said the president balanced promises to hold insurers accountable for their rates with acknowledgments that some cost drivers are outside of their control."

Now reality is starting to hit.  Renewal rates for 2010 are starting to surface, and again we will be facing double-digit increases.  We can yell and scream at the insurance companies for increasing their rates but if we step back and see the big picture the insurance companies are in a no win situation.  If providers continue to increase their billing rates the insurance companies have to increase rates to cover the increase in billing costs.  When this happens guess who gets the blame - the insurance company, not the healthcare provider. 

If we are going to truly have health reform we need to have the employer, payer AND provider at the table to discuss what a RATIONAL reimbursement should look like.  Until we establish a rational reimbursement approach, we will never "bend the curve" in healthcare.  We will continue to view insurance companies as the evil empire while increases in healthcare charges go unchecked.

As NCN we believe you must have a rational reimbursement that is fully transparent to the provider, patient and payer.  Until this is fully adopted there will be more meetings with the president at the White House scolding the insurance carriers who have little control on cost drivers.