Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem) and Renown Health (Renown) have announced they have reached an agreement on a new contract.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (Anthem) and Renown Health (Renown) announced on Thursday that they have reached an agreement on a new contract. The agreement provides Anthem members with continued in-network access to all Renown hospitals and physicians. This agreement applies to Anthem consumers enrolled in employer based HMO and PPO plans and provides continued in-network access to Renown affiliated care providers and facilities.
“We are pleased to continue working with Renown to maintain and improve access to healthcare for consumers and employers in Northern Nevada. Our members remained our number one priority as we worked hard and in good faith to find common ground and reach an agreement that helps achieve greater affordability,” said Mike Murphy, president, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nevada. “We value the relationships we have with the care providers in our network, which are important to creating choices for our consumers and fulfilling our mission of improving the lives of the people in the communities we serve.”
Anthony Slonim, MD, DrPH, FACHE, President and CEO of Renown Health stated, “We appreciate the collaborative approach of both teams to reach resolution. As this community’s only not-for-profit healthcare organization, our mission is to make a genuine difference in the health and well-being of the community. As doctors, nurses and care givers, we want to ensure the greatest access, experience and highest-quality care for every member of our community including those insured by Anthem.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
Patients with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield will no longer be covered at Renown Health unless the two sides reach a deal by August 1st. We first reported the negotiations in June that the current agreement ends on August 1st.
Renown Health says that patients that have services already scheduled will still be able to get their care during negotiations.
It sent a statement released Tuesday:
Renown Health is committed to providing timely, cost effective, quality health care to the community. We rely on the support and collaboration of insurance partners like Anthem to reach those goals. While a resolution in contract negotiations with Anthem has not been reached to date, we remain optimistic that Anthem will choose to remain contracted with Renown for years to come. The costs of providing health care continue to rise while service demands continue to increase, which can create challenges for providers and insurers trying to balance complex patient care objectives.
Like our patients, doctors, nurses, employees and neighbors, Renown Health is a member of this community, and we take to heart our responsibility to contribute to the community’s overall health and well-being. Renown Health is a charitable, not-for-profit integrated health network. Being not-for-profit means that all of our income stays here—and is reinvested in programs, people and equipment to improve the health of our community. Renown serves a 17-county region that includes northern Nevada, Lake Tahoe and northeast California. Services span over 100,000 square miles from Salt Lake City to Sacramento, and serve almost 1 million people.
In order to minimize the disruption to patient care during this negotiation, if an Anthem member has a previously scheduled service, Renown will honor that service. That includes anyone in the midst of extensive care, such as pregnancy, scheduled surgery or ongoing critical care treatment.
Date: August 5, 2019
Source: KTVM