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Blue Cross, Franciscan hospitals hammer out tentative agreement
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana and Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System reached a tentative agreement late Thursday on new contract that will allow Franciscan medical facilities to participate in Blue Cross' preferred provider network.
Blue Cross' and FMOL's current contract expires Jan. 31. Blue Cross and FMOL have been at an impasse for weeks in light of FMOL's insistence that it collect more money from Blue Cross for treating Blue Cross customers. Blue Cross offered FMOL a minor rate increase.
The tentative agreement reached Thursday between Blue Cross and FMOL, which includes St. Francis Medical Center's two campuses in Monroe, begins Feb. 1.
Aimee Kane, director of corporate communications for St. Francis Medical Center, notified the media late Thursday of the compromise.
"We are pleased to reach agreement on terms of a new contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana that will extend until April 30, 2012," Kane said. "Compromise by FMOLHS and BCBS as healthcare leaders in our state is in everyone's best interest, and that's what we had hoped for when we sent our first contract proposal eight months ago."
"Both parties made substantial concessions," Kane said of the new contract. "The agreed upon rate adjustment is enough to cover the cost of doing business and we are satisfied with the outcome. In the end, this is the reasonable contract that should have been resolved two months ago."
"Our organization will continue to be good stewards of our resources as we deliver high quality, safe healthcare," Kane added.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System received a new proposal from Blue Cross Thursday afternoon, but it contained provisions that had to be validated for legal and regulatory compliance, Kane said.
Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System later accepted the proposal.
Details of the compromise were not released as of Friday, Jan. 22.
Blue Cross Blue Shield President and CEO Mike Reitz said FMOL "agreed to hold the line on costs by accepting the insurance company's final offer."
"This offer, made Jan. 8, allows for minimal inflationary increase," Reitz said. "I am pleased we were able to settle our differences and come together to work in the best interests of our customers. As we've said all along, healthcare reform is both a national and local concern, and all stakeholders — customers, healthcare providers and insurance companies — must work together to keep high-quality healthcare accessible for the people of Louisiana."
If a compromise had not been reached, some Our Lady Health System medical facilities would have ceased participating in Blue Cross Blue Shield's preferred provider network on Feb. 1. If that had occurred, Blue Cross customers who utilized a FMOL medical facility would have paid higher out-of-pocket expenses for seeking care at a FMOL medical facility.
Last month, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System and Blue Cross failed to reach an agreement on a new contract for the Franciscan medical centers to participate in Blue Cross's preferred provider network, prompting a disagreement that threatened to negatively affect some 85,000 Blue Cross customers in northeastern Louisiana.
Last year, Blue Cross and FMOL negotiated for months to reach an agreement on the contract that expires Jan. 31. That agreement included a single-digit rate increase. FMOL sought a more than 30-percent increase in reimbursement rates paid for services provided for Blue Cross' insured.
That was considered a "double-digit pay increase" by Blue Cross, and both parties negotiated for months to reach a compromise.
Hospitals in the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System include Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, Baton Rouge; Tau Center for Chemical Dependency, Baton Rouge; Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center, Lafayette; St. Elizabeth Hospital, Gonzales; and Assumption Community Hospital, Napoleonville. |
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