NC Modifies Plan to Peg State Worker Health Pricing to Medicare

North Carolina’s effort to change the payment model for the health plan it provides to state employees has been scaled back after few hospitals agreed to participate.

Dale Folwell, the state treasurer, sought to tie reimbursement to Medicare rates in 2020 in an effort to save some $300 million. The plan spends $3.3 billion a year and covers some 727,000 workers, including teachers, retirees, and their dependents. It is on track to run out of money by 2023.

“We got boycotted by all the major hospitals in North Carolina,” Folwell told Bloomberg Law Aug. 9. The change was abandoned because ...