CHI St. Luke’s Health announced Friday a new, multi-year agreement with Aetna, ensuring the insurer’s members have continued in-network access to all the hospital system’s facilities.
Contract details were not disclosed. The agreement is to help CHI St. Luke’s improve its care quality, while reducing healthcare costs, hospital officials said.
“On behalf of CHI St. Luke’s we’re very pleased to announce our new contract with Aetna that will ultimately benefit thousands of patients’ access to care,” said Deborah Lee-Eddie, CHI St. Luke’s interim chief operating officer, in a written statement. “Healthy partnerships with insurance companies have become even more essential in not only protecting patient access, but also in building and maintaining high-quality patient care. This partnership with Aetna will better support our mission to continually improve our healthcare offerings to the Houston community.”
This summer, the hospital system warned its Houston-area Aetna patients they could have to change hospitals as a result of a threatened split between it and the insurer. The two had until Oct. 22 to reach an agreement.
Aetna members can continue to see their doctors at CHI St. Luke’s hospitals and facilities without disruption, officials said.
Aetna is the Texas’ fourth-largest health insurer with an estimated 2.5 million members. It’s unclear how many are in the Houston area.
CHI St. Luke’s is the Houston area’s fourth-largest hospital system.
Date: October 03, 2014