Moody’s officials believe the supercommittee will target four main areas within healthcare: Medicare cost-sharing for seniors, payments to healthcare providers, prescription drug costs and Medicaid spending.
This would most likely impact both non-profit and for-profit hospital negatively, according to the release. Currently, the federal government reimburses providers roughly 70 percent of bad debts involving Medicare beneficiaries who don’t pay co-insurance and deductible amounts exempt from Medicare. Lisa Goldstein, associate managing director in Moody’s non-profit hospital division, said a supercommittee deal could result in a 25-45 percent drop.
Drug companies would most likely see an increase in rebates toward the government, which could result in a 2-7 percent hit to their revenues.
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