Humana execs: Reform implementation is 'bumpy road'

Despite all the regulations that have been published in the last few months and all the conversations about the health reform law, Humana's chief executive and other company officials warn many questions remain unanswered.

"We have not seen all the details around healthcare reform," Humana CEO Bruce Broussard told Knowledge@Wharton.

What's more, given the reform law's complexity, there are "many interrelated details" that haven't been fully addressed, Broussard added. "Our concern is about what we don't know," he said, citing pricing as the biggest issue.

"There's a lot of detail to work out. The problem is we don't know those details. And that's why I say it'll be a bumpy road until we know those details," Broussard said.

Meanwhile, two other Human execs warned business leaders that healthcare prices are on the rise, reported the Fond du Lac Reporter.

"In 2014, the American public is going to wake up, and when they realize what [the health reform law] has done to them and what it's going to cost them, there's going to be an uproar," said Jerry Ganoni, president of Humana Small Business and Specialty Benefits. The law "did nothing, absolutely nothing, to address rising healthcare costs," he noted.

But despite such dire forebodings, the industry "is on a good road," Broussard said. "There will be some troubled times right now related to implementation. But I look to the future and I see technology information systems. I see the ability to bring all this together and to have an impact on cost and care long term."

To learn more:
- read the Knowledge@Wharton article
- see the Fond du Lac Reporter article

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