CALPERS: Kaiser Permanente Rate Agreement Signals New ‘Model For Cooperation’
An editorial in yesterday's Sacramento Bee said the "10.7% rate hike Kaiser [Permanente] recently won from the California Public Employees Retirement System comes as a jolt" but also "points the way toward a more nuanced and intimate relationship between employers and health plans." While the traditional relationship between the two was more like one between a "buyer and supplier," the editorial says the two sides are now more like "partners in providing health care," noting that in exchange for the rate hike, CalPERS won the right "to monitor Kaiser's books and its health care strategy." By winning these new privileges, CalPERS will gain "more predictability about future Kaiser rates and the overall drift of the health insurance market." The editorial concludes that the Kaiser-CalPERS agreement "should help the two sides to come to a better mutual understanding of the challenges and trade-offs in providing quality care at an affordable price. And down that path lies hope for rounding some of the sharp edges off the often rocky transition to a better health care system" (6/29).
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