Managed care courts Medicare

Managed care courts Medicare

Helen Taylor

Business Report Staff Writer
The Medicare ship is going down, and a likely lifeboat for the federal program˜s 38 million beneficiaries is managed care.Over the next five years, the government˜s balanced-budget agreement is expected to save $115 billion in Medicare spending by curbing payments to hospitals, managed-care companies and other providers.
Controlled spending will temporarily keep insolvency at bay for the tax-funded program and buy time to implement more fundamental changes. In the meantime, a hard push to get Medicare patients into cost-conscious managed-care plans is complemented by managed care˜s enthusiastic move to absorb Medicare…