Those perceived as doing so attract more patients, enabling them to negotiate higher payment rates from insurers.
Or that too many hospitals have grown cavalier about controlling costs and have the market power to demand higher payment rates from private insurers to stay in the black regardless of Medicare rates?
Citing that provision, the White House said Oct. 6 that the bill included a "grandfather clause" allowing higher payment rates for children above 300percentt of the poverty level in New Jersey and New York.
Thus, for example, while Congress was debating an overhaul of Medicare in 2003, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, proposed higher payment rates as a way of "enticing H.M.O.'s back to Long Island".
Senior Democrats have repeatedly suggested that the federal government is paying excessive subsidies to private plans to get them to participate in Medicare, though some Democrats have voted for higher payment rates because their constituents like the private plans.
The commission cited internal company documents and testimony from dozens of witnesses to support its conclusion that the merger "will significantly increase ProMedica's bargaining leverage," allowing it to negotiate higher payment rates from Aetna, Humana and other insurers.
The case led to higher payment rates and other changes in Illinois, and also a requirement that the state pay for a study of low-income children's access to medical specialists.
Unfortunately, fewer customers means less money to artists, despite higher payment rates.
"Policymakers, in considering the implications of decreasing Medicare and Medicaid payment rates to health care providers, must include the likelihood that some of this reduction will result in higher payment rates by private payers," they concluded.
