ST. PAUL, Minn. -- As details of the state's new $11.3 billion budget for health and human service programs sunk in Thursday, health care plans and providers offered negative reviews.
Stretching over the next two years, the plan levels some of its biggest cuts to HMOs and county-based groups that manage care for patients in the state's Medical Assistance health insurance program, according to detailed figures provided this week by the state House of Representatives.
The cuts will come in three key ways - outright rate reductions, a competitive bidding requirement in the metro, and programs that put payments to the plans at risk if they can't meet certain quality goals that should also cut costs. HMOs have been on the hot seat all year at the Capitol, given the industry's record profits at a time of a gaping budget deficit.
"The cuts are significant," said Eileen Smith, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, the trade group for HMOs.
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