Tiered health plans touted for adding competition, leveling costs

Manitowoc County is among a small group of Wisconsin employers who have started providing incentives for employees to go to hospitals that provide high quality at lower costs through a tiered plan managed by Auxiant. UnitedHealthcare also plans to unveil a tiered plan next year, but their emergence in the state is, for now, limited because, among other things, Aurora Health Care and some other systems have clauses in their contract that require their hospitals are in the top tier of any such plan, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. (4/1)