More than half of seniors choose private Medicare Advantage plans instead of traditional Medicare. As rural enrollment increases, many small-town hospitals say that threatens their viability.

  • jeffw@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s not just Medicare advantage. Some large plans are brutal in negotiating rates. I know of a small urban hospital that was getting lower reimbursement from a private insurance company than what Medicaid (typically the lowest payer) was paying them.

    What is that hospital going to do though? Reject the plan? If that plan covers 25% of the people in the hospital’s neighborhood, they can’t very well reject those people or they all end up in the ED as charity care cases.