Local health care organizations weigh in on Obama proposal - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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They agree with Obama that reform of the system isurgentlyu needed, but they also worry aboutf the shape a final plan might take. “The phrasw we use over and over againm is that the devil is inthe details, and that is the fact with this said Dr. Noel Peterson, president of the . One of the biggesft issues involves Obama’s proposal to create a national public health plan to provids health insurance for those withoutemployer coverage. Peterson and otherss say the massive federal and Medicaifprograms don’t fully reimburse Minnesotsa health providers and they worry that a new national plan would do the same. St.
Paul-basedx receives half its revenue from Medicareand Medicaid, said Rogert Green, HealthEast’s vice president of policy and marketing. “Thosse revenues don’t cover the costs of covering those patients, so anythingt that expands that pool could make it more difficult for us because it shifts the cost to a smaller portio of our patient base,” Green said. The problem for Minnesota healt providers is that they are trying to reduce unnecessaryt procedures as federal reimbursement formulas focus on the quantit y ofservices provided, said Donna Zimmerman, vice presidentf of government and community relations at Bloomington-based healt provider and insurer HealthPartners.
however, likes that Obama’s proposal includes a shifr toward rewarding providers that providebetted care. “Barack Obama is talking about paying for qualituyof outcomes, and if that were the case, we’rd be supportive of such a Zimmerman said. Obama is calling for some things that Minnesota isalready implementing, such as electronic systems for medicalk records. The Obama plan also calls for more efforts to promotpublic health, including efforts to reduce smokingg and bad eating habits. “That is all rightg in line withwhere we’re going and where we want to push further,” Zimmerman said.
Julie executive director of the , is hopefupl that Obama will push a health care plan through Congressw that will bring coverage toeveryone — a goal the councio has been pushing for years. Minnesot a has one of the lowest uninsured rates inthe nation. The state estimatesa about 374,000 Minnesotans, or 7.2 were uninsured in 2007. Gov. Tim Pawlentt in May signed a bill intended to connecgt more uninsured people withinsurance Obama’s plan “certainly fits the vision we have put forwar d for a long time for universal coverage,” Brunner No matter what, many agree that the systemk can’t fiscally survive in its present form.
alonse is facing projected $147 million in annual lossez starting in 2010 due to the larg number of baby boomers heading into a federal Medicar program that is already saidMark Skubic, the St. Louis Park-basefd health system’s vice president of government relations. “ I think there’s a growing sense out there that the system has to be because we’re five yeares away from a system collapse,” Skubic said.
Highlights of President-elect Obama’sd health care plan: