Feds Agree To Reconsider Blue Cross Decision
Once lost, two multi-billion dollar contracts that Blue Cross Blue Shield says are keeping up to 2,000 South Carolinians employed may have been found again, Kristy Eppley Rupon of The (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper reported Friday.
These “prodigal” contracts were awarded to another company earlier this year by the federal government, a decision that is now being revisited by … the federal government, specifically the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
From La Socialista:
“It’s good news,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Hammond. “It means we’re still in the game.”
The job losses loomed because BlueCross subsidiary PGBA was told in July that it will lose its Tricare business when contracts expire in March. Tricare is a government-backed military health insurance program.
As a subcontractor, PGBA administers and processes Tricare claims for Humana Military Healthcare Services and Health Net Federal Services.
Each contract lasts five years; one was worth $21.8 billion, and the other was worth $16.7 billion, Hammond said.
Yeah … why are we all of a sudden getting an uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs … a premonition that somehow, someway, this is going to end up costing us money?
And when we say “costing us money,” we’re not just talking about the annual letter from Blue Cross Blue Shield telling us that they’ve once again jacked our already “through the roof” family health insurance plan even further through the roof due to “the increasing cost” of health care.
Riiiiight.
Meanwhile, Medicaid fraud has replaced cocaine dealing as the nation’s No. 1 white collar crime …
Comments
By Mike Honcho on November 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
The rate of Medicaid and Medicare fraud has not changed dramatically in the last two decades.
Just come full circle for the bumper sticker issue of the week crowd.
But that’s not you, you’ve been on this for years. Oh wait…
By Doh on November 13th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
No, it’s MEDICARE fraud that is now the #1 white collar crime.
By James the Foot Soldier on November 14th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Mr. Folks and staff – the two reasons your health premiums increase every year are pretty basic:
1) Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and doctors are below their costs. Therefore, those of us with private insurance subsidize those losses in the form of higher payments in our private insurance claims (in addition to Joe Taxpayer’s Medicare payroll and state and federal income taxes).
Google “medicare cost shift” or “medicaid cost shift” for some fascinating reading on the dirty little secret of the cost shift.
After you have completed your healthcare 101 education would you care to take a wild ass guess what direction the cost shift will traject when Medicaid is expanded to 400 percent of the poverty level and Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals are cut by $500 BILLION?
2) Hospital costs and drug costs are the two primary drivers in healthcare inflation. It defies logic (which is why the democrats insist on using the health insurance boogey-man template) that the 2-3% profit that insurance companies make is a primary driver of sky rocketing healthcare costs in this country – a moot issue with Blue Cross SC since it is a not for profit mutual legal reserve company.
p.s…those government programs suck up a lot of overhead at Blue Cross SC and that helps keeps private policy premiums lower – pray those contracts are renewed or you WILL see your preimium dollar sky-rocket.