Matthew DoBias of ModernHealthcare.com reports the following:
A letter signed by some of the nation’s most influential health systems says a bill now advancing in the House could be financially dangerous to doctors and hospitals.
The Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, Gundersen Lutheran Health System and others on Thursday warned federal lawmakers that a public health plan based on Medicare payments would “have a severe negative impact,” while a lack of provisions to deal with regional payment disparities could prove equally harmful.
“The implementation of a public plan with similar rates (to Medicare) will create a financial result that will be unsustainable for even the nation’s most efficient, high quality providers, eventually driving them out of the market,” the letter states.
The negative feedback from the hospitals and health systems could carry weight with lawmakers, many of who have held up those very same organizations as prime examples of what’s right with the healthcare delivery system.
Indeed, many chief executives from the hospitals who signed the letter have been fixtures on Capitol Hill. The letter singles out three areas of concern. In addition to a Medicare-based public plan and regional pay differences, the signatories call for a reimbursement structure that’s based on the quality of care rather than quantity.
Also signing the letter were: Everett Clinic (Wash.), HealthPartners (Minn.), Iowa Clinic, Marshfield Clinic (Wis.), MeritCare Health System (N.D.), Park Nicollet Health Services (Minn.), Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative, ThedaCare (Wis.), the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Wisconsin Medical Society.
In letter, Mayo, others express concerns over House bill
You can track the healthcare bill here: H.R.3200: America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009
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