Medical examination

ast Wednesday, IU sent letters to all University employees warning that, because of a contract dispute between the University's insurance provider, Anthem/Wellpoint, and Bloomington Hospital, the hospital will "discontinue participating in associated 'preferred provider' networks effective December 31, 2006," unless a deal is reached. In other words, if the two cannot resolve their differences, IU employees could find themselves facing considerably higher fees for treatment at Bloomington's main medical care facility. \nTo state the obvious, we're not experts on insurance plans or health care management here at the editorial board (those of you who are, remember that 350 words is the limit for letters to the editor). However, in our role as laypersons/provocateurs, we'd like to pose some questions to those involved in this problem and, perhaps, get a debate going for the ol' Jordan River Forum:\n-- Is the University deploying all the resources at its disposal to resolve this in IU employees' favor? When asked by the Indiana Daily Student about whether IU had a back-up plan in the event that the contract was not renewed, IU Director of Media Relations Larry MacIntyre replied that he didn't know (IDS, Dec 1). We'd guess that if it doesn't have one, the University is likely working on it -- but what about our other means of leverage? As it is state employees being affected, can the Indiana government do anything to settle this? And what about all the expertise that we have contained in the business and law schools? Or our market power? IU is a heck of a big client. Could we send coach Hep to negotiate? (OK, kidding on that last one.)\n-- Why not compromise? Thanks to a press release, we've heard Bloomington Hospital's grievances -- it claims that Anthem has "an unreasonable demand" that it "may, at any time, unilaterally amend its contract with Bloomington Hospital without any recourse for Bloomington Hospital other than to terminate its contract," that Anthem "wants to disclose rate and discount information to its customers" which Bloomington Hospital has not yet reviewed for accuracy and that Anthem "wants to place severe restrictions on the ability of Bloomington Hospital to make service or facility changes ... without the approval of Anthem." Taken at face value, these demands sound like they might be reasonable -- the issue of amending the contract, in particular. But that's only half of it -- what's Anthem's side of the story? (Note: when asked for Friday's IDS article, Anthem spokesman Tony Felts declined to comment on specifics while negotiations continued).\n-- Is there anything that we assorted other groups in the University community could do to help out? Many of us students get our insurance from a different provider (the Aetna-owned Chickering Group), so we're not facing the same stakes in this dispute -- but, then again, no one wants to deal with profs who are off their meds. So, do we need to write to someone or hold a bake sale or something?\nWhatever the case, let's get this sorted out -- how could you celebrate New Year's properly without emergency coverage?