The University of Mississippi Medical Center issued the statement.
The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi (Blue Cross) have reached an agreement.
Effective December 15, 2022, all UMMC facilities, physicians and other individual Professional Providers are fully participating Network Providers for all Blue Cross commercial health plans, including the Federal Employee Plan and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans from other states.
Blue Cross and UMMC remain focused on their missions of serving Mississippians’ health care needs.
The terms of the contracts are confidential.
Insurance Commish Mike Chaney issued the following statement.
Commissioner Mike Chaney and the Mississippi Insurance Department Team, are grateful to announce an early Christmas gift to over 750,000 policyholders as the contract dispute between the University of Mississippi Medical Center (“UMMC”) and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi (“BCBSMS”) has been resolved and a network agreement has been reached.
The following should be attributed to Comm. Chaney:
“While this matter drug on far too long and resulted in undue hardship and disregard for many patients and over 750,000 BCBS enrollees, I am thankful that the parties were able to overcome their differences and find common ground. UMMC is in the process of informing its patients that the hospital and Methodist Rehab are back in network. Children and patients in need of specialty medical now have access to UMMC.
I wish to thank Mr. Walter Johnson for his work in mediating the dispute. His early efforts played an integral part in the parties achieving a resolution. I sincerely hope that UMMC and BCBSMS will now move forward in a collaborative relationship to provide innovative, accessible and affordable healthcare in our State and will put patients and policyholders as their first priority.
Unrelated to this network dispute, BCBSMS removed Monroe and Pontotoc County public school health providers from the state health plan networks without notifying the state, last week. All the public school providers are back in network as of today.
I will be pursuing legislation in the 2023 Session to protect consumers and policyholders in the future from getting caught in the middle of these types of contract disputes.”
40 comments:
Finally. I know some of the blame falls on UMMC, but BCBS is absolutely NOT "focused on their missions of serving Mississippians’ health care needs." Pure GREED in interfering with health care practitioners, demanding that they see so many patients per day, without regard to the patients' needs.
About damn time!
That’s a great Christmas Gift for all policyholders🎄🎄🎄
@1:54 has zero knowledge of the healthcare system.
Please name one medical policy of BCBS-MS which is contrary to standard of care Medicine?
Please tell us about the competition that BCBS-MS faces? Tell us about the rates of those competitors?
Please tell us what BCBS-MS’s profit is, annually, and where that profit goes?
Please tell us how much more BCBS-MS should pay on any DRG to UMMC in excess of what it pays to Miss Baptist, and why?
Of interest is the fact that UMMC published this statement claiming, in part, that Blue Cross remains focused on their mission of serving Mississippian's health care needs.
I am retired now and no longer have any Blue Cross product; however, I did for about 45 years. I never thought or found Blue Cross to be 'focused on my needs'. Those bastards either denied or put me through the wringer on more claims than I care to recall.
That last statement should factually read:
Blue Cross and UMMC remain focused on their profits, and the “mission” of serving Mississippians’ health care needs will always come second, at best.
I’m thankful, just got the email and rescheduled an oncology appointment I had to miss because of the cost was too high.
BCBS doesn't give a rats ass about serivng the healthcare needs of Mississippians.
Thank you 2:49. None of us know all of the facts in this dispute, however based on prior dealings with the UMMC "leadership" and their actions during this dispute, it is hard for me to place all of the blame on BCBS.
We had a couple of BCBS prowlers come to our office pitching their Healthy You program. One of them said, that this was an extremely important program to them because... they care about us and our families. Bullshit! You care that we keep the claims low in order to keep your profits high. That is the main goal by design with their Healthy You program. Everybody knows that. They are after all, a true and blue for-profit company.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't BCBS supposed to be a "mutual insurance company", technically owned by the premium payors? So, the nickel-and-dime tactics, the strict "formulary" of cheap prescription drugs is all about saving premium dollars? Then why do they sponsor EVERY public event, advertise ad nauseum EVERYWHERE, and have an incredibly elaborate campus in Flowood? Have they paid a premium dividend to the rate payors, EVER??? Do the rate payors have a say about the officers and their pay????
I still won't use UMMC. My wife waited in the ER for 10 hours with a broken ankle and after 10 hours UMMC staff said the ER was closed for the night and to come back tomorrow and maybe they could see her then but weren't 100% sure if they could even get her in the next day.
Well 2:49, since you're a BCBS executive/manager/whatever, why don't you tell us?
3:40 PM Speaks the truth.
Finally, all of the required palms have been well greased.
BSBS MS Is sitting on close to a $750 Million surplus. Mississippi Today did a good piece on it. I guess those executives need a big slush fund to support their lifestyles. Pure greed.
Murphy's Law: I had a bunch of stuff done at UMC on April 14.
This is really important local news, yet it wasn't important enough for WAPT to mention in tonight's late news. We did get to hear Troy Johnson use some incorrect grammar
UMMC caved and everyone knows it - they were hemorrhaging money.
And to the BCBS haters: BCBS is in fact attempting to move to a preventative model with Healthy You that will in fact lead to better health outcomes, and far less money out of your pockets to have to meet your deductibles. Nowhere is this needed more than in Mississippi, and may become a national model in the not-to-distant future. Believe it or not, BCBS IS the good guy in this one.
@December 16, 2022 at 2:49 PM "Please name one medical policy of BCBS-MS which is contrary to standard of care Medicine?"
Sure. I'll go first. Until the pandemic, telemedicine was banned unless it was performed in a clinical setting. Period. This is because BCBS didn't want to pay for teledoc services because it opened a floodgate of good margins for providers. God forbid. (This is even when state law REQUIRED that Telemedicine be treated like any other medicine hint: it IS medicine. BCBS side-stepped this law by issuing a medical policy that limited its reach. In Mississippi. Where we have healthcare deserts. Where rural people have to travel 20-30 minutes to visit a doctor (or more).
During the pandemic, they were forced to allow it... and guess what? Patients loved it. So did providers. And now? It's permanently allowed now... not because BCBS did was right for patients. If they gave a fuck about their insureds, they would have allowed it years ago, especially given the rural nature of our state.
So, yeah, save that shit for someone else.
"And to the BCBS haters: BCBS is in fact attempting to move to a preventative model with Healthy You that will in fact lead to better health outcomes, and far less money out of your pockets to have to meet your deductibles. Nowhere is this needed more than in Mississippi, and may become a national model in the not-to-distant future. Believe it or not, BCBS IS the good guy in this one."
BCBS is doing this because it's cheaper. Period. The fact it has better outcomes is not a direct result of their decision, it's just a nice side effect.
@8:05pm BCBS needs that "slush" fund to ensure they can underwrite the healthcare costs of the most severely obese and unhealthy state in the nation.
No other carrier is waiting in the wings to serve Mississippi's poor, and unhealthy population.
It's strange how the "poor" used to be skinny people.
@6:47am - Piss off BCBSMS shill. You obviously work in their marketing/communications dept. I had the pleasure of working at the Nazi prison camp for 5 years, and trust me, I know they do not give one shit about your health other than it will make them more money if you are healthy. Don’t get it twisted.
What does Methodist Rehab have to do with all of this?
@9:28am
And which department did you work in? Probably wasn't clinical...
Telemedicine is bullshit, and everyone knows it. If anyone is wanting to create larger profit margins - it's the providers (like UMMC). You don't need brick and mortar with "telemedicine" which is just a perfunctory exercise that checks boxes....but the billing keeps rolling in.
UMMC caved and everyone knows it - they were hemorrhaging money.
100%.
Lost some damn good doctors because of this disaster that won't be coming back.
@8:14 Thanks for providing us with an example of how BCBS-MS policies are the standard of care (telemedicine). As for the pre-pandemic period, telemedicine was not the standard of care in the US. So your argument falls flat on its face.
Prior to the pandemic, tell me which insurers' medical policies fully covered telemedicine? UHC? Humana? Cigna?
To 8:14am - I hate to tell you this, but unless you literally reside inside your doctor's office, you and everyone else, no matter where you live, will travel at least 20 minutes to see a doctor. So let's try your comment again.
How long has 6:47 been employed by BCBS?
Breaking: Insurance companies, all of them, are first and foremost in the business of denying, limiting and avoiding claims. Every other thing relies on that reality.
Whatever an insurance company does, whatever program it creates, whatever the pricing strategy, whichever policy-holder restrictions it can put in place, however many claims it can deny...each and every one of those things, independently or in concert, enables them to profit, pay high salaries, build really nice offices and join high-dollar organizations.
Are insurance companies necessary? Yes. Do they have us all by the balls? Yes.
A dozen or so years after Obama Care passed and the ill-informed electorate has no clue why healthcare costs are so high. Funny stuff.
Healthcare costs were 'high' long before we ever heard of Barry Sotero.
11:14 AM, the people I know paying over $2k per month for family health insurance weren’t paying anywhere close to $2k per month for family health insurance before Barry’s Obama Care.
7:37--- Actually 2:49 probably knows this because he/she works at any other hospital who is informed on this issue.
8:14 am: most DOCTORS didn't go to PROVIDER school. I know I didn't. I despise that term. And most doctors hate telemedicine because you can't examine a patient or tell much of anything about them over a blurry smart phone or video conference. Ask an actual doctor what they think about telemedicine.
Regarding BCBS vs UMMC: it's kind of like Alabama vs Auburn- I wish they'd both lose. Neither one has patients' welfare at the top of their priorities. It's all about money and politics. UMMC looked worse to me with all their childish billboards accusing BCBS of not caring.
6:29 - 'Healthcare costs' and 'insurance premiums' are two separate animals. I can't tell whether you are actually claiming Obama brought down the costs of care or raised the premiums or both or neither. One thing's for sure...If he was involved in it, he lied about it.
@12:31pm
The common "God" mentality of physicians on display... you're a provider, not a payer. Big difference. Very big.
7:24 PM, yes technically 'healthcare costs' and 'insurance premiums' are two separate animals, but most contributors to society likely put them together, like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did in this excerpt:
“Premium increases, higher deductibles and copays, and soaring prescription drug prices result in spikes in healthcare costs. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services1.”
In a March 21, 2021 article the Heritage Foundation stated: Obamacare Has Doubled the Cost of Individual Health Insurance.
And yea, Obama lied. It was humorous watching the fools get behind such an empty suit, believing that costs would not only NOT go up, but decrease…BWAHAHAHAHAHA
My favorite story is of two Democrat women that saw their health “insurance” increase significantly and during an interview stated that they not only voted for Obama both times, they campaigned for him, and went on to say (you’re going to love this):
“we want everybody to have health insurance, we just didn’t know we would be the ones to have to pay for it.” BWAHAHAHAHAHA
5:05,
Go see a payer the next time you are sick, then. I never once thought I was "God", and everyone I know who did was quickly brought to Earth by reality. You must be some administrator/ paper pusher who wishes they'd done something better in life.
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