Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has reached a new contract agreement that maintains Regions Hospital in St. Paul as an in-network health care provider for the insurance company’s subscribers.
The contract announced Tuesday means that people covered by Blue Cross — including about 6,000 current patients at Regions — will continue to have access to the St. Paul hospital at in-network payment rates.
Without the agreement, Blue Cross patients would have been required, starting Wednesday, to pay more if they wanted to continue receiving health care services at Regions. The deal also maintains access to the Regions Hospital Rehabilitation Institute in Woodbury.
“Blue Cross and Regions agreed to a mutually acceptable solution that assured patients and members will have uninterrupted care and coverage into the New Year,” Eagan-based Blue Cross said in a statement. “The new contract is in effect through the end of 2014.”
The dispute went public in late November, when Blue Cross mailed letters to subscribers informing them of the potential change in access at Regions. The parties did not say exactly what contract terms were in dispute.
The 11th-hour resolution on Tuesday was similar to the conclusion of a 2008 contract dispute between Blue Cross and Minneapolis-based Fairview Health Services. In that case, Blue Cross and Fairview agreed to new contract terms just two days before patients would have been affected.
Blue Cross is one of the state’s largest health insurers and employs about 3,500 people statewide. In 2012, payments from Blue Cross accounted for about 12 percent, or $70 million, of total net patient revenue at Regions of $582 million.
Last year, Blue Cross reported an operating loss of $54.8 million on revenue of $9.5 billion. Investment income offset the losses, leaving Blue Cross with net income of $68.4 million.
Regions is one of the largest hospitals in the east metro and is operated by Bloomington-based HealthPartners, an insurance company rival to Blue Cross. For the first nine months of 2013, Regions posted operating income of $22 million on $437.1 million in net patient revenue.
During 2012, Regions employed about 5,000 people, according to a filing with the Internal Revenue Service.
Date: December 31, 2013