New TRICARE Contracts Shock Some Docs

Is this Humana contractor who is negotiating with providers only asking the behavioral health providers to pay up to 30% less or all medical providers to pay up to 30% less than Medicare costs? That part was confusing to me in the article.

Either way, it looks like providers can still negotiate with Humana their contract with that particular provider based on the location, supply and demand of that provider's services. Congress and VA can fix this by making a law that TRICARE contracts will set costs at the Medicare rate; thus, Medicare for Veterans.

Even with the reductions in the $$ amounts covered by insurance, someone somewhere is still getting filthy rich off our medical care!!!

This reminds me of the controversy when TRICARE came into being. The argument was that most doctors wouldn't accept military patients because of how low payments from TRICARE would be. At first many doctors were reluctant to sign on but over time they discovered that any guaranteed payment from the Government was better than the outright refusal to cover they were getting from many civilian insurance networks.