The Boston Globe continues their Spotlight series on Partners HealthCare.
I have previously alluded to an example where a local insurer, Tufts Health Plan, balked at the rates that the Boston hospital conglomerate was demanding.
Instead of negotiating, Partners immediately played hardball knowing that patients demand the “brand-name” services of their top-ranked medical institutions, Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s Hospitals. They instituted a million-dollar marketing campaign, where “signs went up at Partners reception desks notifying Tufts members that their insurance would soon be denied. A new website told them how to switch insurers. A call center in Texas was set up to field questions from worried patients and doctors.”
Patients took action against the possibility of losing their access to the hospitals, and “within days, major employers and thousands of Tufts members began threatening to cancel their policies.”
It is no wonder that Tufts surrendered “in little more than a week.”
As I mentioned previously, this is a prime example of why Partners HealthCare would not have the clout they currently enjoy without patients clamoring for their services.
Related posts:
- Tufts Medical Center plays the Partners HealthCare card and drops Blue Cross Blue Shield
- The Boston hospital wars, and how the Partners HealthCare empire is growing
- Can Massachusetts stop Partners Healthcare?
- Partners Healthcare responds to the payment disparity uproar
- How Boston’s top hospitals are paid much more
- Should hospitals be penalized for financial success?
- Same-sex partners being denied visiting rights
{ 3 comments }
No, patients who are insulated from the extra costs by third party payers are the reason Partners Healthcare is so strong.
The demand for Partner’s high cost hospitals would drop significantly if patients had to pay the additional cost for these “brand-name” hospitals.
The same thing happened in NJ in 1999 when Robert Wood Johnson negotiated hard with Aetna, telling Aetna that they could take a hike with their paltry reimbursements. Ultimately, RWJ prevailed. Compared to physicians, who cannot collectively bargain with MCO’s, the larger Health Systems have fared better up to now. Today’s economic tsunami threatens them all.
While the cost insulation distorts things, it is still a good thing that a facility with a reputation for superior quality can charge and get more. In a system where everyone is paid the same, the natural history is for a devolution of quality to an ever lower floor. In fixed price healthcare, bad care drives out good.
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