The staredown between Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield and local hospitals seems certain to come down to the final hours. For those insured by Blue Cross and using Hartford Hospital or Windham Community Hospital, the witching hour is midnight Oct. 31. For those using Bristol Hospital, it’s 24 hours later.
We feel for all involved, particularly the innocent patient who arrives in the emergency room minutes after a coverage change. We’d like to be able to say health care negotiations shouldn’t come to a crisis point that threatens the safety of residents. But we can’t. That’s the system we’ve built and this is one of the many unfortunate side effects.
This won’t be the last insurer-hospital dustup we’re likely to see in the months ahead.
Hospitals and insurers are each trapped in a bad situation in which they can have only minimal impact on their revenues. For that matter, neither insurers nor hospitals has all that much control of their costs either. Consumers, doctors, hospital staff, medical device makers and pharmaceutical makers all want more. Both state and federal governments keep mandating increased coverage then deny rate increases to cover the cost. Reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid keep falling even as costs go up. Insurers are busy finding ways around mandates. And the cost of uncompensated care is killing hospitals, as Greg Bordonaro reports on this issue’s front page.
The result, predictably, is confrontation over the scraps.
It is clear the existing system is splitting at the seams. It seems trendy to take potshots at the now six-month-old health care reform program signed last spring by President Obama. And there are certainly things that will need to be tweaked as we get closer to full implementation in 2014. But we disagree with the conservatives’ position that ‘Obamacare’ is the end of civilization as we know it and nothing short of repeal will save us.
The current system is clearly broken. We’ve set out on a remedial course. Mid-course corrections are inevitable and even desirable. Let’s put our time into that debate rather than wasting time on an approach that throws the baby out with the bath water.
Doing nothing simply is not an option.
This is a complex issue for which no single person, party or ideology has the complete answer. Finding a solution that allows all the stakeholders to thrive without resorting to the kind of brinksmanship we’re seeing between Anthem and the hospitals requires continued engagement at the highest levels. Let’s get on with finding that right answer so we can leave dangerous crisis negotiations over coverage in the past.
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Nuclear Waste Â
At the risk of repeating ourselves, we turn to another thorny national problem that has a local aspect in the news.
Connecticut again has received a verdict saying the feds owe us $40 million for storing all that nuclear waste that long ago should have been in a federal storage facility.
But that good news is tempered by the fact that there seems no movement on a long-term solution to the problem.
We applaud Governor Rell for adding her voice to the call for action. And we hope our congressional delegation presses the issue.
The not-in-my-backyard sentiment is strong and politically powerful. Nevada’s Yucca Mountain looked like a good site for nuclear waste but with it now ruled out of play, the federal government needs to get moving on finding a viable site. Years ago, there was political and scientific support for using the caves of southeastern New Mexico. An Indian tribe in the California desert also was interested in playing host to the waste. There’s nothing wrong with working with a coalition of the willing.
Let’s get on with finding an answer. This energy headache isn’t going away by itself.
