Maryland’s Health Services Cost Review Commission has dictated the Medicare rates for hospitals, as well as the overall hospital prices for payors, under a special exemption waiver from CMS. In order to receive the waiver, the state must show the federal government its Medicare costs grow more slowly than the rest of the country.
The Maryland Hospital Association recently pitched an idea that would shave Medicare and Medicaid rates, but hospital rates for commercial payors would increase 7 percent over the next three years, according to the report.
Chet Burrell, CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the largest health insurer in Maryland, said the proposal is nothing more than a cost shift, and hospitals are “the single biggest driver” of the state’s healthcare cost woes.
“Not only were we high-cost already, [but] now you say, ‘Let’s shift costs to the private sector from the public sector and make it worse’?” he said in the report. “Is that what constitutes sound public policy? We have said cost shifting is not a path to go down.”
Maryland is close to losing its special waiver, but HHS has told the state it could modify the rules if it overhauls new cost controls. The MHA did not comment in the report.
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