Offering a government insurance program reimbursing at Medicare rates as a public option on the health insurance exchanges could place as many as 55% of rural hospitals, or 1,037 hospitals across 46 states, at high risk of closure, according to an analysis released today by Navigant Consulting Inc. The authors estimate that 28% of rural hospitals would be at high risk of closure if only uninsured and current individual market participants shifted to the public option, and that more than half of rural hospitals would face high risk of closure if employers shifted 25% to 55% of their covered workers from commercial coverage to the public option. “To keep hospitals whole from the financial consequences of any of these scenarios, Medicare would have to increase hospital payment levels for a public option between 40% and 60% above present Medicare rates, costing between $4 billion and $25 billion annually (depending on the severity of the employer shift),” they said.

Related News Articles

Headline
States have until Sept. 30 to submit an optional letter of intent to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services indicating they plan to apply to the…
Headline
Susan Doherty, AHA’s vice president of field engagement, and Rebecca Chickey, AHA’s senior director of behavioral health services, write on the unique ways…
Headline
The AHA expressed support Sept. 22 to House and Senate sponsors of the Medicare Advantage Prompt Pay Act (H.R. 5454/S. 2879), legislation that would apply a…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Sept. 18 released a final rule on policy and technical changes to Medicare Advantage, the Medicare…
Blog
This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2023, the latest year for which data was…
Headline
The AHA submitted a statement Sept. 17 for a House Ways and Means Committee markup session on a series of health care and other bills. Specifically, the AHA…