The insurers cite growing pressure from the state to reduce healthcare costs, which have been rising 7.5 percent annually and are the highest in the nation at a time when residents are required to obtain coverage under state health reform.
In the past, Partners Healthcare, the state’s largest and wealthiest health system, forced health plans to back down by waling away from rate negotiations and leaving members without access to Partners hospitals. But following the state’s recent publication of hospital rates, “the world has changed,” said the CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Hospitals feel on the defensive as many payor contracts come up for renewal. “Payors feel a mandate to do something and do something quickly” without being “sensitive to unique situations,” said Lynn Nicholas, president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association. “Hospitals in the red are being asked to make payment reductions.”
Read the Boston Globe’s report on hospital payments.
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