Crozer-Keystone contract dispute settled
Just hours before its contract was set to expire, Delaware County’s Crozer-Keystone Health System has reached an agreement that will allow Medicaid recipients to keep getting care from Crozer-Keystone doctors and hospitals.
Just hours before its contract was set to expire, Delaware County’s Crozer-Keystone Health System has reached an agreement that will allow Medicaid recipients to keep getting care from Crozer-Keystone doctors and hospitals.
The contract dispute is over now, but the hospital system and the Keystone Mercy Health Plan were set to sever ties May 1st.
Laval Miller-Wilson leads the Pennsylvania Health Law Project.
Miller-Wilson: We are pleased that the parties reached an agreement, but there’s a still massive amount of disruption from consumers receiving notices that they had to change providers. They had a choice of choosing a new provider, some did, and thousands were auto-assigned to new providers.
About 26-thousand health plan members have used a Crozer doctor or hospital in the last year.
The insurance company and health system have been trying to negotiate a new contract for 18 months, and both sides have blamed the rising cost of health care.
In a written statement, hospital officials say Crozer-Keystone is absorbing a 9-million dollar reduction in its reimbursement rates.
Health access advocates have been pressuring the hospital and health plan for months and had planned a Monday rally to protest the change.
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