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What's New for September 2004
Western Piedmont Anesthesia/BCBSNC All Product Contract
We are pleased to announce that Western Piedmont Anesthesia (WPA) has executed a contract with BCBSNC for all products. Per WPA, the contract will be effective 8-16-04, subject to BCBSNC credentialing requirements.
As you may recall, historically WPA was a non-participating provider with BCBSNC and out of network for BCBSNC members. This has been somewhat of a membership/customer satisfaction issue for our patients over the years, especially with CVMC's recent inclusion in all BCBSNC products, and are pleased the parties were able to come to a final contractual resolution.
Exclusivity Removal for United HMO
We are pleased to announce effective 10-1-04, CVMC, CVMG and the WNCHA PHO Physicians, will now be participating in all the United Healthcare Products, for us that means the inclusion in the long awaited HMO product. This is an amendment to our existing agreement.
The removal of exclusivity will be unilateral in that Frye will now be included in all products as well (they were formally excluded from the PPO/POS membership) as of the same effective date.
Currently United has approximately 1000 HMO covered lives (possibly less), mostly in the small employer market, and approximately 3500-5000 covered lives in their PPO/POS products. Therefore, most likely we will not see significant utilization increases with the inclusion in their HMO product, but will be able to announce we participate now in all major market Health Insurance Plans--pushing us close to 99% of "Catawba County Residents having access to CVMC" goal! We could potentially see a slight decrease in volume/utilization in their PPO/POS products with the inclusion of Frye, however we suspect the impact will be nominal since many of these members are CommScope employees/dependents who have established relationships with our CVMG and CVMC loyal providers.
The only "exclusives" left in the market are with the infamous six employers (formally in the PHA risk contract) and their exclusives will be terminated in the near future as a result of FTC-PHA consent decree.
