Worker's comp talks hit snag, but aides are hopeful; Surgery-Center Fees Causing Impasse
San Jose Mercury News
By Deborah Lohse, Mercury News
Sep. 09, 2003
Legislators trying to restrain the skyrocketing cost of worker's compensation insurance hit a logjam Monday over one stubborn issue.
Their dilemma: how much to slash fees to outpatient surgery centers, which are one of the few parts of the program not subject to cost controls. Key aides said they remain hopeful that the impasse can be broken in time to pass the bill by the end of the session Friday....
The biggest sticking point Monday centered on fee limits to outpatient surgical centers. Such centers -- more than 450 across the state -- are not regulated like other medical providers in the worker's compensation system. As a result, critics say, they have been increasing prices they charge 33 percent a year, said FRANK NEUHAUSER, A RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY, who provides research to the California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation.
By 2004, such centers are expected to have incurred charges of $2.27 billion for their services, up from about $1.2 billion in incurred costs in 2002, said Neuhauser. For some procedures, such centers charge five times more than they could get in traditional health plans, he said....
Source: UC Berkeley In the News
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