The Eastern Connecticut Health Network is another contract dispute.
State Healthcare Advocate Victoria Veltri says the contract between Eastern Connecticut Health Network (ECHN), which is the parent to Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield is set to expire Dec. 31.
If a new deal isn’t reached by that deadline it would mean patients with Anthem insurance will have to pay higher, out-of-network rates if they seek treatment at an ECHN hospital.
The dispute comes just weeks after ECHN failed to come to a new contract agreement with UnitedHealthcare/Oxford Health Plans.
Meanwhile, the Eastern Connecticut Physicians Hospital Organization, which is ECHN’s community physicians practice, is also in contract negotiations with Connecticare.
Veltri said the possible termination of the contracts could lead to the “potential failure of an entire system of care east of the river that provides thousands of Connecticut residents with primary, specialty and hospital care.”
“While it’s not uncommon for carriers and hospitals and carriers and physician organizations to engage in protracted negotiations, in this case there are three contracts in dispute at the same time,” Veltri said. “Right now, accessibility is in serious question, particularly under the United/Oxford and Anthem contracts.”
