I’m at the UBS Global Healthcare Services Conference this week, hoping to get a sense of the confidence level of health plan executives following the apparent demise of reform. The consensus from the presentations I’ve heard so far seems to be that healthcare reform may be down, but it’s not out.
“It’s still not behind us, and it’s still something this country very much needs,” said Wayne DeVeydt, chief financial officer of WellPoint Inc. (Indianapolis). However, he predicted a scaled back reform effort. For example, he expects an expansion of Medicaid eligibility and a long-term physician payment fix. He also thinks reform efforts at the state level “are going to heat up a lot more.”
Less likely, he said, is comprehensive individual market reform. He added, however, that WellPoint still supports individual reforms such as guaranteed issue provided there is a strong mandate requiring people to buy insurance. Guaranteed issue without a mandate results in rising premiums, he said, using New York as an example; DeVeydt said that a typical individual policy costs $800 per month in New York, compared to $150 in California.
Among others: Jay Gellert, chief executive of Health Net (Woodland Hills, CA), said the industry is entering a “dangerous” time, with the reform effort lacking a clear direction and leaving the industry with the potential of “a lot of fires to put out.” Cigna chief financial officer Annmarie Hagan said her company supports reform that addresses access, quality and cost. Humana chief financial officer James Bloem agreed that “at some point there will be some” type of reform.
Is there some posturing in these remarks? Probably. But there is still a degree of uncertainty around reform, and Wall Street hates uncertainty.
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If the insurers believe we should reduce costs why haven’t they implemented all the hipaa business transactions that will radically reduce costs?..they have only been in existence since 1996!