GREENSBORO, N.C. - State Treasurer Dale Folwell wanted to see how much the UNC Health Care system was charging our insurance provider, Blue Cross Blue Shield, for each procedure, so he put in a public records request:
"And what I received back was a document where almost every single page was blacked out,” Folwell said. “This is a provider we send over $250 million for services rendered for our teachers our troopers and other state employees. People do not consume healthcare in this state. It's consuming them."
For the charges at High Point Regional for example the page was all blacked out saying down at the bottom in tiny print "this document is a confidential document of UNC Health Care system."
UNC Health Care explained all the redaction in a statement to us reading:
We are concerned about the overall cost of health care in our state and nation. As North Carolina’s health care system, our primary focus is to provide the highest quality care to our patients and to help improve the health of populations in our state, while keeping costs low. Our recent partnership with Blue Cross NC that was announced last week highlights our desire to develop innovative approaches for reducing health care costs, while providing high quality care. All health care agreements between hospitals, doctors and insurance companies are proprietary business agreements, and therefore considered confidential. In addition, independent audit firms routinely examine insurance contracts to ensure the correct contract rates are being applied.
And Blue Cross Blue Shield wrote:
We provide transparency to the State Health Plan through the State Health Plan’s independent, third-party auditors, through the detailed claim data that we provide, and through our online cost transparency tool. The State Health Plan’s independent, third-party auditors are able to come onsite and work with our Operations area to verify that the providers’ contracted rates are applied correctly to State Health Plan medical claims. The State Health Plan auditors conducted such an audit in 2016. We also provide the State Health Plan with all of their claims data. The data is fully transparent and includes the billed amount, allowed amount, and paid amount for each claim. However, certain contract details are critical competitive trade secrets for all payers and health systems. Sharing trade secret information is not in the interest of Blue Cross NC or the State Health Plan.
Still Folwell says more can be done in hopes of saving the state money.
"We have to find ways to do it better and cheaper on behalf of state employees, retirees and taxpayers like them,” he said. “But we can't do it better and cheaper when we don't know what we're supposed to pay."
