Cedars-Sinai and UCLA cut from Los Angeles health plan

[AlphaCentauri]

Source: LA Times

Two of the most prestigious names in Southern California healthcare — Cedars-Sinai and UCLA — are getting shut out of a major insurance plan for being too expensive.

In a bold cost-cutting move, Anthem Blue Cross has eliminated doctors affiliated with the hospitals from a health plan offered to about 60,000 employees and dependents at the cash-strapped city of Los Angeles.

The city opted for Anthem's plan because it will save $7.6 million in annual premiums next year by excluding physicians from the two institutions known for tending to the Southland's rich and famous. About 2,200 city workers and family members are expected to lose access to their doctors under the plan.

This dramatic step shows that even some of the most-respected names in medicine can't get by on reputation alone at a time when the U.S. is grappling with a $2.6-trillion healthcare bill annually. Major hospitals and medical groups face growing pressure to justify their charges. And employers increasingly are willing to risk the ire of workers by cutting popular providers to clamp down on costs.



Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hospital-costs-20120921,0,2292633.story

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No more upscale healthcare for peasants, ridiculous.

[itsrobert]

1. Every time a celebrity dies

it is at Cedars. Doesn't look like they have a good track record.

[msongs]

2. Anthem Blue Cross PROFITS since 2004 = $4 BILLION +. that's PROFITS. This move is about profits not

anything to do with cost cutting to help patients. Its another health insurance scam

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/23/business/la-fi-anthem-cash23-2010feb23

[itsrobert]

4. Aren't their Profits capped now?

Under ObamaCare? They have to give rebates if they haul in too much.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. I wonder how many companies will, in turn, leave Anthem Blue Cross

competition needs to lower costs - ESPECIALLY of the insurance behemoths who are raking in the dough, hand over fist, while they pull benefits and limit options

[HankyDub]

5. love how these twits describe it as a "bold move."

Seems more like a "dick move."

[KeepItReal]

6. Well said!

Pay more... Get less.

[Bette Noir]

7. I used to have Anthem!

They're sucky. Not as sucky as what we have now, but pretty sucky.

[NNguyenMD]

8. Celebrity care doesn't usually translate to the better care...

as nice as they are as hospitals, Cedars-Sinai and UCLA Medical Center do no better, and possibly worse, than the average California hospital for hospital acquired infections.

http://www.dailybruin.com/article/2012/08/medical-centers-trying-to-reduce-risk-of-hospital-acquired-infections

Prevention of hospital acquired infections almost always comes down to the nitty gritty basic practice your mother and grandmother taught you to do, WASH YOUR HANDS!

Unfortunately, the abundance of pig headed egomaniacs who troll the hallways of the UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center seem to think they're better than everyone else, and are free of the filth and multi-drug resistant organisms that physicians at lesser institutions must have.

You want to see an example of a top notch hospital, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota does not let you get away with simple tasks such as washing your hands.