Memorial Health Care System and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee have not been able to reach an agreement in contract negotiations, leaving Memorial hospital patients out-of-network with the insurer on Aug. 1, Memorial said in a news release this afternoon.
The two parties had been in extended negotiations for months and had said as late as Wednesday that they were still trying to reach an agreement.
Memorial executives said they had asked for a 30-day extension to the contract, which BlueCross declined.
The contract expiration does not affect Memorial physicians, The Chattanooga Heart Institute physicians and Memorial Mission Surgery Center, which have separate contracts with BlueCross.
Memorial has pledged to continue to extend in-network rates to patients despite the lapse of contract.
Read more in tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Mariann Martin covers healthcare in Chattanooga and the surrounding region. She joined the Times Free Press in February 2011, after covering crime and courts for the Jackson (Tenn.) Sun for two years. Mariann was born in Indiana, but grew up in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Belize. She graduated from Union University in 2005 with degrees in English and history and has master’s degrees in international relations and history from the University of Toronto. While attending Union, ...
