I work in the media, but I think the press is way underplaying the CCMC and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield contract dispute.
A grandmother at Reid’s playgroup asked me about it Monday. Her family is faced with the possibility of putting off a scheduled surgery in the coming weeks while the hospital and the insurance company work to hopefully settle their dispute.
My friend and former colleague Arielle Levin Becker is doing an awesome job covering the dispute for the CT Mirror Read her latest story: Anthem, Connecticut Children’s talking, but no deal yet
Is the dispute impacting your family? Let me know. If you can talk to the Courant please message my friend and current colleague Matt Sturdevant — msturdevant @ courant.com/ @CTInsuranceNews.
Follow Arielle on Twitter @ariellelb
Thanks, Jim!
This might be helpful for the family worried about the scheduled surgery — see the first Q&A on page 2 about what to do about scheduled procedures: https://anthemgroup.postclickmarketing.com/Global/FileLib/disruptions/CCMC_EmployerMember_QA.pdf
Thanks Arielle. Reid actually has a surgery scheduled with a CCMC surgeon on May 2. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. I assume the dispute is nationwide? We were at CCMC in February for five day when they drained an abscess in his neck. We were back about a month ago when they cauterized the abscess. They are now suppose to scope him to see if the abscess closed properly on the 2nd.
Hopefully the dispute will be resolved by then, but I’ll contact our insurance. They should cover it in-network because we already have had two surgeries with this doctor, he’s just checking his work now.
Definitely check with your insurance company, but your coverage might not be affected either way; Illinois Blue Cross and Anthem Blue Cross in Connecticut have different parent companies. So they might have separate contracts with hospitals, though I don’t know for sure.
Either way, yes, routine post-surgical follow-up for surgeries performed before the Anthem contract expired will be covered in-network, according to Anthem.
FYI, anyone with questions on the situation can call the CT Insurance Department at 800-203-3447, or the Office of the Healthcare Advocate at 1-866-HMO-4446.