Premera will include Swedish’s health services in plans
By Carol M. Ostrom, The Seattle Times | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
On Monday, Premera announced it will bring Swedish into the fold, including all of Swedish's hospitals, clinics and doctors in 2015 individual and small-group health-plan networks for Premera and its subsidiary, LifeWise Health Plan of
The news was well received.
"We're happy for our patients that they have more choice in the market now," said
In the last open enrollment for individual plans, Polyclinic had to tell its patients who expected to deliver babies at Swedish's downtown hospitals that they would not be able to do so if they signed up with Premera or LifeWise.
The Polyclinic, whose doctors typically admitted patients to Swedish, eventually worked out new arrangements with
"It was the first time one of our major systems wasn't in a popular (insurance) product," said Corgiat.
In
"I got lots of calls," said
Adding to the pain, Olympic had forged an affiliation agreement in 2011 with Swedish, allowing its doctors to create a seamless referral for patients with serious conditions to Swedish and its specialists.
But when the new networks were formed, those doctors were left scrambling to find in-network care for patients, some of whom had to leave specialists they had seen for years. "If you're sick or have chronic disease, you don't want to be forced to change specialists," Lewis said. "You buy insurance through the exchange, you expect to maintain that relationship," he said. "You could not in 2014."
Lewis said the mismatch was "one of the growing pains for health-care reform." But the change, he said, is a very positive step for residents in rural areas.
Both Swedish and Premera have long said they were attempting to work out an agreement. Premera spokeswoman
In a statement,
And Swedish's chief executive,
The change for 2015 also affects small-employer group plans with the Heritage Prime network.
For consumer questions about Premera's networks, call 1-877-PREMERA (773-6372); existing members may call the customer-service number on the back of their ID cards.
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