A new round of negotiations are expected early next month between Regence BlueShield of Idaho and LifePoint Health to find an agreement allowing the carrier’s insurance plans to be accepted at LifePoint’s St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston. LifePoint invited Regence executives to its headquarters in Tennessee to work on a deal after prior talks stalled, leading St. Joe’s to leave the insurer’s network when a deal wasn’t reached by a January 15th deadline. The disconnect is over how much the insurer pays the medical center for hospital and physician services. Those affected are now subject to much higher out-of-pocket costs for care at the hospital, as most care will be billed as out-of-network for Regence subscribers, with exceptions for some emergencies and severe car accidents, and there are month-long grace periods for cancer and maternity patients. In the meantime, Regence encourages subscribers to seek care for non-emergencies from other non-St. Joe’s hospitals and health care providers to avoid higher costs. (Lewiston Morning Tribune)
