This pattern of requests for taxpayers to help pay for major projects 'could leave children's hospitals with little incentive to control their costs,' a Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School professor said.
Medicare often pays higher-than-necessary rates to doctors and hospitals and can't take steps used by private insurers to control costs, the CMS administrator said.
Since 2010, enrollment in Medicare Advantage has doubled to more than 20 million enrollees, growing from a quarter of Medicare beneficiaries to more than a third.
What's clear is that voters want the protections. Even majorities of Republicans told pollsters this summer that it is 'very important' that guarantees of coverage for preexisting conditions remain law.
The president was expected to sign two bills Wednesday that ban clauses that prohibit pharmacists from telling customers when they can save money by paying the pharmacy’s lower cash price.
The 'global risk' model is increasingly used by Medicare plans such as Humana and UnitedHealthcare to shift their financial exposure from costly patients, giving doctors' groups more money upfront and control over patient care.
