St. Joe’s and Aetna agree to new contract [The Record (Hackensack, N.J.)]

Feb. 26--St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson and its sister hospital in Wayne will continue to be "in-network" providers for Aetna customers, hospital executives announced Monday after a contract agreement was reached.

The hospital and the insurer hit an impasse in negotiations in December and Aetna sent out letters to more than 6,000 physicians and 5,700 Medicare and self-insured members explaining that St. Joseph's Healthcare System would no longer be considered an in-network provider, effective at the contract termination date of March 15.

The contract agreement means patients will experience no interruption of coverage. The length of time for the new contract was not released.

"Both St. Joseph's and Aetna were very interested in reaching a fair agreement, regardless of the challenges," William A. McDonald, St. Joseph's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "This new contract preserves the long-standing positive working relationship between both organizations."

This is the second time in three years that the two sides had difficulty reaching an agreement. During an impasse in 2009, 55,000 letters were sent to patients alerting them to the possibility that St. Joseph's would no longer be an in-network provider.

The two sides reached an agreement in April 2010.

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