As 2017 drew to a close, some health plans and healthcare providers across the country were still busy trying to finalize contracts for in-network services for 2018 and beyond. A number of negotiations made the headlines in 2017, highlighting ongoing and emerging issues affecting network contracting.
We recap for you some complex deals: in June, UnitedHealthcare and University of Chicago Medicine reached an agreement just a few weeks before the provider was scheduled to go out-of-network;[1] in September, CarePoint Health and Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (“Horizon”) reached an agreement to bring CarePoint in-network, putting an end to CarePoint Health’s federal lawsuit against Horizon for $76 million in unpaid out-of-network bills;[2] after months of negotiations, and a failure to meet an October 1 deadline to keep services in-network, Anthem and Hartford HealthCare reached an agreement in November to continue in-network services at Hartford’s Connecticut medical centers;[3] and, at the beginning of December, Mission Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina reached a new in-network agreement after a six-month long dispute.[4]
Continue Reading ‘Twas the Season to Contract? A Year-End Review of Network Negotiations and Billing Disputes