Posted on 01/31/2024 5:59:25 AM PST by buckalfa
(Reuters) -Insurer Health Care Service Corp said on Wednesday it would buy Cigna's Medicare business that manages government-backed health insurance for people aged 65 and older for $3.3 billion in cash.
The sale consists of Cigna's Medicare lines, including Medicare Advantage, Medicare supplement and Medicare drug plans, as well as a unit called CareAllies that works with physician groups and other healthcare providers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I think you can guarantee that they won’t be buying it to offer improvement.
I don’t trust anyone who sees a value in a government check.
My wife and I are both on Cigna Medicare. Great. Just great.
HealthCare Corp is owned by BCBS?
Why do they think they can make a profit in this business line, especially after shelling out $3.3 billion?
Supplement or advantage? If it is a supplement, then it could affect your premiums but otherwise it wouldn’t change your coverage.
Health Care Service Corporation. Who We Are
Okaaaaay....
They may not need to make a profit as long as they have low friends in high places.
Our Medicare is higher than what I paid for medical insurance as an employee (state).
Health Care isn’t easy, particular health insurance.
Long gone are the days of simply creating a risk pool and printing money.
There is still money to be made, and lots if you are good at it, but its not simple. Especially medicare... Many companies underestimate the complexities... Even ones who are good at delivering health care can stink at health insurance.
Execs just see dollar signs, and don’t think things through.
Here’s the dirty little secret no one wants to admit.
US Is already effectively a single payer system... 80% of what you spend on health care in your entire life, will be spent during the last 2 years of your life (on average)... and when are your last 2 years of your life? When you are on Medicare.
Medicare dominates the entire industry. Whatever they declare is what everyone will follow.. because its not worth a delivery networks time to do your private insurance process that is vastly different than medicares.. they will just stop accepting patients with your insurance.
So, we have what is effectively and prgamatically a single payer system, but do not have any of the operational benefits that a single payer could provide. IE, singular system for all medical records across the country, etc etc.
I worked for a big provider/insurer, and I can tell you, we increased our revenues by multiple 7 figures by simply getting better and coding bills for medicare. Didn’t change anything else in terms of operations, or health care delivery, just improved billing coding and justifications for medicare reimbursement and increased revenues by multiple tens of millions of dollars per year.
This is the reality of the US Health Care industry.
Those that thing transparent pricing or other “market forces” are going to “move the needle”, are ideological fools.
Should be multiple 8 figures, not multiple 7 figures
Eventually there will be a monopoly. Basically that’s how the government plans to take over everything.
Yes.
THIRD PARTY PAYER = GOVERNMENT RUN
In the end.
I took to mean both.
Well that should be no surprise as the political class demands Cadillac coverage for them and theirs paid for by taxpayers... while letting Medicare be the bottom of the barrel reimburser.
No subsidy equals higher prices for the private sector vs all govt plans..... ymmv
Both, plus PDP.
Also, they dont call themselves Cigna anymore, but rather Evernorth. Whatever the hell that is.
My working career was in health care finance and analytics, particularly the revenue cycle. It is a complex web of cost plus and medical necessity wove into contracts that stay within government funding caps. As you point out, it is single payor allowing the third parties to carve our a profit at the expense of the patient.
Supplement
My career was in medical informatics, and my son’s is in health care analytics. We 100% agree. You have stated it perfectly.
What does PDP mean?
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