Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is negotiating reimbursement contracts with Michigan’s largest health care systems — Henry Ford Health, Corewell Health and Michigan Medicine.
The Detroit-based insurer and resounding leader with a 67% market share in the state is coming off a hefty loss of $1.03 billion last year and its CEO, Tricia Keith, is publicly calling upon hospitals to cut costs as the industry accelerates toward financial unsustainability. BCBSM itself is in the midst of a $600 million administrative cost-cutting plan.
Meanwhile, Michigan health systems — many of which have grown larger through rapid consolidation in recent years — protest that insurer reimbursement is substandard and has not kept up with rising costs and claim patients are suffering under increased denial rates and procedure scrutiny…