Assessing Hospital Financial Performance
Q: I have expensive CIGNA HMO coverage provided by my employer, and my medical group dropped the CIGNA relationship because they paid so little. I mentioned this because the private insurance was paying so that little the medical group dropped them.
A: Thank you. Your experience provides additional real-life evidence of trend toward higher co-pays and higher deductibles.
In a floundering economy, employers will be under more pressure than ever to reduce costs. Some conservative thinkers see it as a chance to bolster the prominence of health reimbursement arrangements, or HRAs, in which employers reimburse employees for medical expenses and in some cases, insurance premiums — in place of providing insurance to employees as a company.
Many progressives, of course, see things differently. But there’s agreement across the ideological spectrum — 30 million newly unemployed Americans, and scores of others who worry they’ll lose their job and their health care with it — have made traditional models of employer-based health insurance less relevant than ever.
Course overview: Assessing Hospital Financial Performance