As the Legislature debates Medicaid reform, the News and Observer’s hysteria grows shriller.
Their latest salvo claims patients will be hurt because ”Medicaid no longer would pay for each hospital visit or medical procedure for the 1.8 million enrolled in North Carolina. The companies would get a fee for each patient at the time of enrollment. If the cost of care ran over the fee, the companies would be liable.” (Raleigh News & Observer)
This shift away from fee for service medicine, where providers bill for the volume of services instead of the quality of care, is attributed to Republican ideology. The News and Observer calls replacing fee for service with pay for performance ” a terrible idea.”
Republican ideology? Terrible idea? Really? Here’s a recent article reporting ”White House Plans To Shift Medicare Away From Fee-For-Service; 50% Of Payments Tied To Quality By 2018” (Forbes)
Funny, we don’t recall Ned Barnett and the News and Observer gang getting ruffled when the Obama Administration canceled fee for service. But it’s a dastardly plot when Republicans do it.
Haven’t the pontificating Editors revealed themselves as hypocrites? No question about it.
The News and Observer is a cog in the spin machine for Community Care of North Carolina, the group with a Medicaid management monopoly. Like any monopoly, CCNC wants everyone to believe the sky will fall if competition is Introduced into Medicaid management .
While CCNC is supposedly nonprofit, recent numbers show CCNC with the same profit margin as a leading managed care company. (CPRNC.org)
Maybe the News and Observer can spin that.