UCLA health care economist Dylan Roby says the charge cap would only help the uninsured, because insurers typically negotiate charges down.
"The ability to have more transparency in pricing will be much better," Roby says. "But it still won’t reign in any other part of health care spending because typically that 25 percent cushion they’re getting is more than Medicare, Medi-Cal and private insurers are paying in the first place.”
Roby says average pay of non-profit hospital CEOs is about $600,000 nationwide. He says capping salaries wouldn’t necessarily bring health care savings.
“I do think limiting hospital pricing could bring down health care costs. It’ just that I don’t think making people set the charge master at 25 percent over actua," says Roby costs doesn’t necessarily fix hospital pricing.”
The Service Employees International Union’s Dave Regan says hospitals are the biggest driver in health care spending.
“There’s a culture of pricing, and doing business that has just lent itself to driving the cost of care up,” says Regan.
But hospitals say capping hospital charges could force cutbacks in staff and services. And Jan Emerson Shea at the California Hospital Association says the CEO salaries are justified.
“These are very dangerous and deceptive initiatives because they don’t get at the underlying causes of why health care costs rise," warns Emerson.
July 19, 2018Premiums in California’s individual marketplace will increase for the fifth consecutive year, due in part to federal changes and a predicted departure of healthy consumers.
July 16, 2018Kaiser Permanente’s "Salud en Español" clinic is part of a wider effort to increase culturally appropriate services for Latino residents, who are at high risk for diabetes and hypertension but are less likely than white patients to go to the doctor.
May 11, 2018Gov. Jerry Brown opted not to include major investments in public health insurance programs in his budget revision on Friday, citing a preference for one-time spending measures over long-term commitments.
February 7, 2018Enrollment in Covered California dropped slightly this year. Numbers out today show 1.5 million people enrolled for 2018. That's down about two percent from the previous year. A drop in renewals offset gains in new enrollees.
September 28, 2017There's a big public health push to stop pumping livestock with antibiotics. A new report looks at which fast food chains are being choosy about their meat.
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