MGH Targets Sickest for Cost Savings

Boston Business Journal
January 21, 2011

In the fight to cut health care costs, Massachusetts General Hospital is recording a small win.

The hospital, which has come under fire for its relatively high prices among private insurers, has achieved a 7 percent savings with a cutting-edge Medicare pilot program that the hospital initiated three years ago…

“Where you will see these initiatives is at big companies such as EMC, where there is a large patient population, and the employer pays the claims themselves, rather than through an insurer,” said Tom Hubbard, senior program director at NEHI, formerly known as the New England Healthcare Institute. Self-insured companies currently account for about half of all Massachusetts workers, according to the state Division of Insurance.

Hubbard said programs like this one are unlikely to provide much relief for small businesses, because there aren’t enough high-cost patients to make a dent in costs, and because any small savings would be shared among all employers in the insurer’s health plan.

Link to Full Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2011/01/21/mgh-targets-sick…