State Treasurer Dale Folwell sweetened the pot Monday in an effort to get hospitals on board with the State Health Plan that serves hundreds of thousands of state employees, retirees and North Carolina teachers.

Folwell also reopened signups for hospitals and doctors, giving them a redo after nearly every hospital in the state rejected his previous offer at the July 1 negotiating deadline. The treasurer said payments he proposed Monday would give hospitals $116 million more than the first offer but still save taxpayers and state employees $200 million on insurance premiums and other health plan costs.

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Folwell called it a "final offer."

It wasn't clear whether this would move the needle for hospitals that have largely been united in rejecting Folwell's planned move from individual contracts negotiated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, which handles claims for the State Health Plan. Folwell wants to pay a set price for specific procedures.

UNC Health Care said it needs time to study the new proposal. Spokespeople for the Duke University Health System and Atrium Health didn't immediately provide comment on the new pitch.

WakeMed's chief executive said his company was reviewing the proposal but still wants the General Assembly to block Folwell's reforms, delaying changes with a bill that's passed the House but been held up by Senate leadership.

A spokesman for Vidant Health also said it's time to pass the bill. Vidant Chief Executive Mike Waldrum was targeted Monday by a new digital campaign from an offshoot of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, which has backed Folwell's push to cut payments.

The offshoot group launched MillionDollarMike.com Monday, playing off Waldrum's $1.2 million salary. The effort pulls no punches on Waldrum, who is not only Vidant's CEO but chairman of the state's main hospital lobbying group, the North Carolina Healthcare Association.

"Mike Waldrum continues to rake in millions even as he turns his back to the very people he’s supposed to help," SEANC said in a press release announcing the campaign. "His arrogance, unwillingness to negotiate, and refusal to face working families has reached a tipping point."

Vidant's spokesman said in an email that Vidant "has not and will not engage in personal attacks."

The new window for hospitals to sign onto the State Health Plan runs from July 26 through Aug. 5 at midnight, Folwell's office said in a release. Like before, payments would be tied to Medicare, the federal insurance program for senior citizens. But reimbursement rates would be higher, moved from 182 percent of what Medicare pays to 196 percent, on average, Folwell's office said.

That would still save taxpayers, who fund the lion's share of the state's health insurance plan for employees and retirees, $166 million, the treasurer's office said. Plan members would save $34 million. The total plan costs roughly $3.4 billion a year.

Only three hospitals, of roughly 100 in the state, signed on at the lower rate by Folwell's initial July 1 deadline. The plan was to start the new structure in January, with open enrollment in September. Hospitals and other practices that don't sign on would be out-of-network for plan members, increasing their out-of-pocket costs.

"This final offer is very generous; almost doubling the rate that Medicare pays providers," Folwell said in his statement Monday. "We urge all hospitals to stop the unreasonable attacks and respond to this reasonable offer.”

The treasurer also said he'd create a study group of health care professionals to look at future changes. Hospitals have been pushing the legislature to freeze the current system in place, via House Bill 184, while health plan changes are studied by committee.