Title

"Cover Story" piece on the impending loss of Maine's largest non-profit health i

Authors

Meg Haskell

Source

Maine Times

Date

11-25-1999

Pages

4-9, 1

Abstract

"Cover Story" piece on the impending loss of Maine's largest non-profit health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine (BC & BSM). Anthem of Indiana has announced that it plans to purchase BC & BSM. But rather than allow a sale, Bruce Cummings, a past president of the Maine Hospital Association, wants Maine to recreate BC & BSM as the Community Health Trust of Maine, a state-chartered mutual insurance organization whose mission would be to provide affordable health care coverage to all Maine citizens and modeled loosely on Maine Employers Mutual Insurance Company, which is credited with rescuing the once-dysfunctional Maine worker's compensation system. Jim Harnar of Maine Hospital Association said the fact that hospital costs are rising in Maine is largely due to low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. Maine is last in the nation when it comes to Medicare reimbursement to hospitals and it's largely because of Maine's Medicare shortfall that we have the fourth highest health insurance premiums in the nation.

Subjects

Anthem Insurance Cos, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine, Insurance, Health, Medical care, Cost of

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