[LoriAnn]

The likelihood of attracting a larger well equipped not-for-profit hospital to the area has a lot to do with the prevalence of replacement policies. Traditional Medicare pays much higher than a replacement. Every provider of services which includes hospital, MD's, testing centers, labs, home health, DME must make a decision on being out-of-network or in-network with each replacement plan. Out-of-network means 25-30% copay along with deductibles. If they choose to be in network they must sign a contract agreeing to accept payments that are much lower than traditional Medicare. To complicate matters, the replacements pay very, very slow. That is why most providers accept traditional Medicare and the replacements have spottier available providers. If a provider such a specialist is in great demand, they are much less willing to accept poor paying insurances. My guess is that traditional Medicare with supplements are in the majority if only by a nose because of Moffitts willingness to open cancer treatment center here.