Last month, Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health announced plans to reduce physician reimbursement by 4.5 percent starting April 1 for treatment provided to patients with plans bought on the Affordable Care Act exchange.
Below are six reactions to the cuts by physicians and hospital executives.
1. "If an insurance company is not balancing their budget appropriately, if they're paying exorbitant salaries, if they have large reserves and if ultimately their actions are putting a burden onto practices, I think that's an issue for the government to get involved in," Pennsylvania Medical Society President Scott Shapiro, MD, said in a letter to both Highmark and the Massachusetts' Insurance Department.
2. "The way for insurers to save money is to incentivize [physicians to keep costs low], not cut payments," Mark Kissinger, executive director of Genesis Medical Associates in Pittsburgh told TribLive.
3. "All in all, [Highmark] is a decent partner as it relates to what we're doing as a nonprofit provider of healthcare to the community," Jack Sisk, CFO at Punxsutawney (Pa.) AreaHospital, told TribLive. "But this 4.5 percent just doesn't feel right. They have the leverage and they're using it."
4. "It's inappropriate for physicians to experience a reimbursement cut because the premiums for these products have been underpriced," John Krah, executive director of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny County Medical Society, told Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
5. "The cut is not the end of the world," John Holmes, vice president at York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health, told Lancaster Online. "I do not believe there will be any material impact to consumers."
6. "This further reduction in reimbursement is just another example of a system not designed correctly to provide quality management of patient care with a goal to reduce costs," Physicians' Alliance Executive Vice President and COO Lee Meyers told Lancaster Online.
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