Thoughts On Gov. Bryant's Ex. Order For BCBS To Play Nice?

[blkdout]

I don't usually reply to this stuff but BCBS customers deserve what he did. Ya'll may totally disagree with me and from reading these post some of you will. My story on why my thinking is what it is. My wife was pregnant with our second child due september 17th. Everything was good until this fiasco came about and the deadline for in network was September 1. You be the 8 month pregnant lady who calls BCBS every week trying to find out if she can have her baby at River Oaks or try and deal with the hassle of pre registering at a different hospital. Not once did blue cross ever notify us of anything that was happening by phone or mail. They should have atleast had the courtesy to send a letter to there customers of the situation. The phone calls also offered no assistance it was always the same we are trying to work things out or ill have someone call you back from our support team which was a joke to. She contacted the agent because hers is provided through her work and he couldn't provide any information either. The hospital on the other hand sent out a letter, contacted us, and kept us informed on every visit. They also insured our bill would not change if an agreement was not met. So be that person whether or not bryant has the authority to or not who else can put them in there place, not me or you.

Also lets not forget them dropping UMC. What happens if your child was sick and at Batson but you had BCBS. Think about those parents who were having to deal with not knowing if the insurance they have been paying good money for was going to help treat there child.

Do not reword any of this to make it sound like I am for obamacare because I am not. But if something happens to my wife or kids and they need to be treated at an HMA hospital but its out of net work for BCBS the customer should not have to worry about that when we pay what we do each month. Pure GREED if you ask me.

Just my .02!

[turkeyman]

I don't usually reply to this stuff but BCBS customers deserve what he did. Ya'll may totally disagree with me and from reading these post some of you will. My story on why my thinking is what it is. My wife was pregnant with our second child due september 17th. Everything was good until this fiasco came about and the deadline for in network was September 1. You be the 8 month pregnant lady who calls BCBS every week trying to find out if she can have her baby at River Oaks or try and deal with the hassle of pre registering at a different hospital. Not once did blue cross ever notify us of anything that was happening by phone or mail. They should have atleast had the courtesy to send a letter to there customers of the situation. The phone calls also offered no assistance it was always the same we are trying to work things out or ill have someone call you back from our support team which was a joke to. She contacted the agent because hers is provided through her work and he couldn't provide any information either. The hospital on the other hand sent out a letter, contacted us, and kept us informed on every visit. They also insured our bill would not change if an agreement was not met. So be that person whether or not bryant has the authority to or not who else can put them in there place, not me or you.
Also lets not forget them dropping UMC. What happens if your child was sick and at Batson but you had BCBS. Think about those parents who were having to deal with not knowing if the insurance they have been paying good money for was going to help treat there child.

Do not reword any of this to make it sound like I am for obamacare because I am not. But if something happens to my wife or kids and they need to be treated at an HMA hospital but its out of net work for BCBS the customer should not have to worry about that when we pay what we do each month. Pure GREED if you ask me.

Just my .02!

Well said. I agree 100%

[randywallace]

The price differences for identical procedures referenced in bcbs's lawsuit were staggering. In several instances the non HMA hospital such as Baptist or St.D charged less that half what the HMA hospital charged. It also looks kinda funny that the gov has accepted a buttload of campaign contributions from HMA and their lobbiest.

Kingfish has the scoop. http://www.kingfish1935.blogspot.com/20 ... ss-to.html

[digger]

I'm not much for goverment intervintion on anything but with the deal (run in) I had with bcbs I hope someone bust their ball's.In my eyes their (bcbs) the devil.I'll give the short version,I'd had my ins. with them for 20+yrs never made a big claim just a faimly Dr. visit every once and a while when I turned 45 they sent me a termanation notice and dropped me.At $300 a month for 20yrs they made a butt load off me then when I reach an age when they think I will start useing it more they drop me.

[Chuckle12]

NM

[the tree]

Hospitals... an employee cut their finger on a friday afternoon and went to a the emergency room at the nearest hospital. Not wanting to file a workers comp claim, we paid the cost. Between the er, er physician, x-ray tech, our cost was $1,250 to have her finger cut glued shut. Did get a 10% discount just for asking. Several months later, different employee, similar injury (cut index finger requiring stiches), sent employee to 24 hour emergency care and cost was $275. Perhaps bcbs is a bully, but they run with a real tough crowd.

[Deltamud77]

I think what the gov did was correct and public health in mind. BCBS got where they are due to being granted not for profit status over 40 years ago. This is what allowed them to gain 81% market share, NOT great customer service. Once they choked other insurance companies from they decided to return to a for profit status and become the bully they are today. Once they accepted not for profit status they accepted a responsibility to the citizens of the State of MS, private company or not.

This is much further reaching than just if patients can be treated at an HMA facility. If you take 81% of the commercial insurance patients from the pool these 10 hospitals likely won't survive. That alone is why the Gov needed to intervene. If you live in the Jackson Metro then you still have options, but the other facilities are reaching capacity. Once they do, now what?? If you live in Clarksdale, Amory, Batesville, etc where will you go and what will you do if these facilities close??? Take the BCBS patients out, what will the other residents of these towns do? Where will they get care? How will they get there?

I don't think the Gov really wanted to be in the middle of this, but as the Gov he has to think about the welfare everyone in the state, not just HMA or BCBS.

Please cite the authority the governor has to issue an executive order which forces two private entities to contract with one another.

[Deltamud77]

I think many people here are missing the point, which is:
(1) BCBS is a crappy company...that is undeniable...you will rarely find one person with one positive experience in dealing with them, and that even includes their own employees;
(2) HMA is widely known to bill much more for common procedures than other hospitals and HMA is widely known to treat employees, particularly physicians they deem to be making too much money off of RVUs, like trash...they too are a crappy company;
(3) BCBS and HMA, two billion dollar entities that are both for-profit, have gotten into a pissing match over money...not your care, not you kid or wife's care, but money...for either of them to act as though this is primarily about the patient is complete BS...as evidenced by HMA not accepting the BCBS offer have Woman's and others back in network after this started; and
(4) Though it may be deemed noble by some for the governor to get involved, he just like Obama and Obamacare, has NO constitutional right or authority to intervene. The founders were very aware of government over reaching and that is precisely why you have the court system...and HMA has properly filed suit in Rankin County against BCBS. As conservative as this board is, you cannot pick and choose socialist policy decisions when they suit you...it comes across as shallow and relativistic.

[bigoak]

I think many people here are missing the point, which is:
(1) BCBS is a crappy company...that is undeniable...you will rarely find one person with one positive experience in dealing with them, and that even includes their own employees;
(2) HMA is widely known to bill much more for common procedures than other hospitals and HMA is widely known to treat employees, particularly physicians they deem to be making too much money off of RVUs, like trash...they too are a crappy company;
(3) BCBS and HMA, two billion dollar entities that are both for-profit, have gotten into a pissing match over money...not your care, not you kid or wife's care, but money...for either of them to act as though this is primarily about the patient is complete BS...as evidenced by HMA not accepting the BCBS offer have Woman's and others back in network after this started; and
(4) Though it may be deemed noble by some for the governor to get involved, he just like Obama and Obamacare, has NO constitutional right or authority to intervene. The founders were very aware of government over reaching and that is precisely why you have the court system...and HMA has properly filed suit in Rankin County against BCBS. As conservative as this board is, you cannot pick and choose socialist policy decisions when they suit you...it comes across as shallow and relativistic.

Well said. There are no good guys in this. Just as there are no good guys in Washington, on either side of the isle. Everyone is looking out for their own best interest.

[jacksbuddy]

This goes a lot deeper than "making two private businesses do something". He absolutely should do what he's up to. I don't like the majority of what BCBS nor HMA do. I'm on the other side of the page.........BCBS either doesn't pay or pays very poorly for most services. HMA usually recruits doctors that'll take less pay and is a number crunching business. Guess what, the patient is usually the one that suffers from both sides. The problem is we've all allowed the BCBS monopoly to form. We need to put a stop to it real quick while we have the chance. The state got smart and took away from BCBS and gave the CHIPS management contract to United Healthcare.

There are a lot of laws and contracts out there that BCBS is basically throwing to the curb b/c no one usually calls their bluff. I hope he sticks to it.

I agree. As Governor, his main responsibility is to help the people of Mississippi. We are his customers, and his sole reason for being where he is today. BCBS and HMA are both private businesses looking out for their stakeholders. Unfortunately, we (the citizens of Mississippi) are not their main priority. With these two companies going against each other, all they are looking at is how they can beat the other one. They are not looking out for us, the people of Mississippi. And as a result, the people of Mississippi are getting beat up pretty bad by both of them.

Just think about it for example. I expect that Jack and the Lap Yapper will guard the family. They do a very good job of alerting us to things that go on around the house, without being vicious towards neighbors. But! It doesn't matter how much I love them, if Jack and the Lap Yapper both thought that they were responsible for guarding my baby, I wouldn't let them fight about it in the nursery. In fact, if either one of them thought that they were big enough to hurt a member of the family, there would be an acute and immediate K-9 shortage in my household.

I think the Governor is doing the same thing. He is doing this so that we, as the premium paying/tax paying citizens of Mississippi, don't get hurt by these two businesses fighting each other.

[thcobb1]

Delta Mud,

I cannot decide if the Gov has the authority to issue such and order. Since I am not a lawyer I am not qualified to decided that. This will be decided by a federal judge.

The question was peoples opinion. I have quite a bit of knowledge on this subject and the facts are very complex and not just one company vs another. Both of these companies are licensed or permitted by the State of MS, either by the insurance commission or the board of health. Because they have been granted the privilege of doing their respective business in the state they are subject to decisions made by the state regarding the operation of that business.

With that being said the gov acted in what he felt was in the best interest of the people of MS. ie. to protect the health and welfare of the citizens.

If there were enough capacity in the Metro area or other providers in the rural communities the decision might be different. Keep in mind this would affect the only burn center in the state, one of two high intensity neonatal units in the state, multiple hospitals in the trauma network, in addition sole providers in rural communities.

As much as I don't like goverment intervention, I think his intervention was needed to protect the health and welfare of the state. As I said this is much more complicated than just BCBS vs HMA and I cannot imagine he made this decision without much consideration. I can also imagine BCBS did not help themselves by suing him for mentioning he was considering such and order. ie. he stated last friday morning he was considering it and they filed suite by lunch.

[Deltamud77]

I think the Governor is doing the same thing. He is doing this so that we, as the premium paying/tax paying citizens of Mississippi, don't get hurt by these two businesses fighting each other.

I don't disagree, but the problem with that is we are a nation of laws. He doesn't have that legal authority. In Chicago, based on the exact same logic, they have all but banned guns and infringe rights, so that citizens don't get hurt. It is a slippery slope. Let the courts parse it out.

[goosebruce]

I thought this thread was about football... I thought it said bcs play nice, and couldn't figger out how a governor was going get involved with college football. crazy but I remember a gov getting involved with a duck season closing date so hey, who knows! haha. travis

[bustercat64]

My opinion is that as long as the Government controls health care the Governor has to have the ability to step in and do something. I am not talking about Obamacare I’m talking about the Insurance Commissioner and his office, they have a big role in setting up how the insurance companies do business in the state. The Governor main job is to see that the people of MS are being treated fairly it is the job of the Commissioner, Senate and House to make the laws which insurance have to follow.

[Deltamud77]

My opinion is that as long as the Government controls health care the Governor has to have the ability to step in and do something. I am not talking about Obamacare I’m talking about the Insurance Commissioner and his office, they have a big role in setting up how the insurance companies do business in the state. The Governor main job is to see that the people of MS are being treated fairly it is the job of the Commissioner, Senate and House to make the laws which insurance have to follow.

Chaney also says that his office cannot do anything about this situation and that this is an issue for the court system.