PacifiCare, Others May Get 4% Medicare Boost

PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., the Cypress-based manager of Medicare healthcare plans, and other insurers may get an increase of at least 4% in overall payments from the program next year, the government said.

The insurers were given an average reimbursement increase of at least 6.6% this year under a 2003 law to revamp Medicare, the U.S. government’s health-insurance program for the elderly and disabled, at a cost of more than $500 billion.

Healthcare plans were getting average annual increases of 3.2% before the law was enacted.