Investigators: A Bitter Pill?

MINNEAPOLIS - At a time when the state of Minnesota says it's broke and can barely afford health care for the very poor, the FOX 9 investigators have found Minnesota’s HMOs are sitting on more than a billion dollars in reserves, which is a big part of that is taxpayer money. Some lawmakers say the HMOs have way too much leeway when it comes to spending our tax dollars and they are calling for change. Health care is complicated, costly and contentious.

The very poor are in the middle of a political debate about whether the state has any money to cover them. The debate comes at the same time HMOs, like medical, Blue Plus and HealthPartners, have had a very good year courtesy of the taxpayer.

For the past two decades, respected analyst Allan Baumgarten has put together an annual health market review. This year it will show HMOs made $98 million administering public health care
Minnesota gives $3 billion every two years to HMOs to administer health care programs for the poor, pregnant women, the elderly and the disabled.

In any other business you'd call it a profit. Senator Sharon Erickson Ropes says it's time to dig deeper into how the HMOs are making so much money on tax dollars. She has introduced a bill to change the way HMOs do their accounting so lawmakers can better examine what's being spent on what.

The HMOs submit annual statements to the state. The statements can be accessed online, but Senator John Marty wants more transparency.

Monica Nilsson works at St. Stephen’s Outreach. She says a simple way HMOs can save administrative costs is by not sending packages of information to the homeless.

When HMOs make money on your tax dollar, they don't give it back to the state. They keep it for their reserves. And right now, the HMOs are sitting on 1 billion 300 million dollars in reserves.

Baumgarten says the HMOs have two and a half times what the law requires. Representative Carolyn Laine says that's too much. It is a lot of money at a time thousands still worry how long the state will continue to fund the health care program they rely on.

And hospitals like Hennepin County Medical Center say they're just scraping by on their piece of the public health care pie.

Reports from the Minnesota Council of Health Plans

http://media2.myfoxtwincities.com/docs/MPPTable.pdf
http://media2.myfoxtwincities.com/docs/MPPGL.pdf
http://media2.myfoxtwincities.com/docs/PieChart.pdf

To access expense and other reports filed with the Dept. of Health go to:

http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/hpsc/mcs/index.htm and then look under quality/financial/enrollment.

http://media2.myfoxtwincities.com/docs/HospitalFinancials.xls

To read reports by Allan Baumgarten go to the following link:
http://www.allanbaumgarten.com/