New Medicare Chief Urges Cooperation With Insurers in Speech

Source: Bloomberg

Striking a conciliatory tone with insurers who resisted the health overhaul, U.S. Medicare chief Donald Berwick appealed to health-plan executives to work with the White House on changing the country’s system of care.

Berwick spoke today at meeting hosted by the trade group whose members include UnitedHealth Group. Inc., the biggest U.S. insurer, WellPoint Inc. and Humana Inc. The appearance was Berwick’s first public speech since being nominated by President Barack Obama in April to lead Medicare, the government health program for the elderly and disabled, and Medicaid, the federal- state coverage program for the poor.

“All of us have the change the way we do business,” Berwick told the ballroom of health insurance executives gathered in Washington, D.C. “Those who wish to only preserve the status quo are not going to be contributors to our nation’s future. We do not have time for games.”

Berwick’s remarks were a departure from the admonishments that his boss, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, leveled in a Sept. 9 letter to the insurance industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans. In the letter, written to Karen Ignagni, the group’s chief executive officer, Sebelius said insurers were “falsely blaming” the health-overhaul law for premium increases.



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