Innovative concepts in public-private coordination of benefits for retirees

Benefits--in the broadest and most literal sense of the word--can be coordinated between Medicare and employer group health plans. What that may entail, however, ranges from (1) researching complementary plans' effect on Medicare utilization and costs; to (2) incorporating those findings into rate setting for the Medicare capitation payment that would be administered by the EGHPs; to (3) some potential cost-containing redesign of complementary plans that would be acceptable to employees/retirees and their unions and would involve improvements in information provided to consumers; to (4) some consideration given to allowing savings achieved through capitation to become part of a trust that would prefund the EGHP retiree plan.