Moses Cone’s Tim Rice and BCBS’ Bob Greczyn go at it on today’s N&R editorial page.
Greczyn writes:
How could an X-ray at one hospital cost six times as much as the same service at another facility less than 50 miles away?
That’s just one of the things that puzzled us as we examined the recent demand by Moses Cone Health System for higher fees for hospital services. How could they expect Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBS) members to pay 18 percent more immediately and 36 percent more overall by July 2009?
….while Rice lets us know that BCBS isn’t the only entity putting the squeeze on Cone:
We are faced with many things that challenge our ability to provide quality care. Medicare and Medicaid pay us far less than what it actually costs to provide care. Combined with unfair payments from BCBS, you can see the serious strain on our hospitals.
Hoggard weighs in, saying he’d be one pissed off BCBS customer if his wife Jinni had to travel to HP or W-S for follow-up breast cancer treatments. I wouldn’t blame him. But I believe Cone and BCBS will somehow work things out.
