Mayor Riley challenges BlueCross BlueShield on urgent care decision
By Lauren Sausser, The Post and Courier, Charleston, S.C. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
In a letter to the company last week,
"Freedom of choice is always desirable, particularly in health care," Riley said. "I urge you to reconsider the decision."
A spokeswoman for the insurance company said it has received a small number of additional inquiries from customers about this decision.
The decision will affect most
"I think you will see several years of this trend -- of realignment of networks and narrowing, in some areas," said
Ritchie had no information about the BlueCross BlueShield decision but said urgent care models are subject to the same market pressures as traditional hospitals and doctors. Insurance companies are becoming more selective in all these sectors. "Urgent care is part of that process," he said.
Dr.
"When you arbitrarily and capriciously, without cause, restrict patient choice and de-select patients from their providers of choice, you restrict quality and innovation and dilute the market forces that drive affordable solutions," Hallaba said.
"When we specifically asked whether or not this decision had anything to do with the fact that they owned Doctors Care, they stated that they did not directly own Doctors Care but only its parent company UCI," he said.
"There has been a 40 percent increase in urgent care centers since
She said the insurance company has explained to Medcare Urgent Care that its costs are outside the norm of other urgent care providers. BlueCross BlueShield is scheduling a site visit at a Medcare clinic and a meeting with
"All of our provider contracts are confidential. However, as part of that process we must take into account the total costs of a visit to a provider, including laboratory tests, X-rays and other services," Embry-Tautenhan said. "As an insurer, our constant challenge is finding a way to balance access with affordability for our members. We continuously review what is best for our customers."
An online petition that Hallaba launched on
"There is an overwhelming unhappiness with this decision," he said.
Dr.
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