MU Health Care works on new agreement with Anthem

I am a healthcare provider and familiar with the contracts of health insurance companies and their contracted benefit managers. These contracts the health insurance industry provide to health systems and providers are typically one sided, to the benefit of the insurance company and not their patients or the system that provides the actual care or service. Your reporting only one side is slanted and misleading. The statement by the Anthem (now Elevance Health) spokesperson that, "We are concerned that MU Health wants to significantly increase costs for patients and their employers in Missouri. . . . ", is ridiculous. The insurance company is the one that determines what the costs will be for their patients. Healthcare systems and providers simply submit claims to the insurance company or their benefit managers are the reimbursement and the patient's cost is determined by insurance company. The negotiations (if any) are simply the insurance company mandates on what they will pay for services and/or products in a take-it or leave-it methodology. Many times these healthcare providers and systems actually experience a negative reimbursement and is probably why MU Healthcare wants to work on a new agreement with Anthem. I suggest you look at the revenue and profit reported by Elevance Health (formerly known as Anthem) in 2023 ($171.3 billion and $5.99 billion, respectively) and ask yourself who is actually raising prices to patients.