CalPERS Approves Move To Negotiate Prices With Hospitals Individually
CalPERS on Monday approved a measure to negotiate separate prices at individual hospitals rather than accept uniform prices for all facilities owned by the same company, the Sacramento Bee reports. The move "continues a battle started last year to curb spending on health benefits" for CalPERS' 1.2 million members, according to the Bee.
Over the next year, CalPERS plans to work to make hospital prices easier to understand and to release more information about the quality of care at hospitals.
CalPERS will finalize a list of hospitals to include in its coverage network as part of negotiations with health plans that provide benefits to CalPERS members. Negotiations with such health plans typically are completed by June (Rapaport, Sacramento Bee, 2/17).
In other CalPERS news, the board on Wednesday as expected voted to elect Rob Feckner, former interim chair and union representative, as president of the 13-person board, the Los Angeles Times reports (Lifsher, Los Angeles Times, 2/17). The board voted unanimously in favor of Feckner (Berthelsen, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/17). Feckner said he would continue efforts to address increasing health care costs and executive compensation and oppose efforts to overhaul the state pension system (Los Angeles Times, 2/17).
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