IU health insurance expires at local hospital

Bloomington Hospital and Anthem Health Insurance failed to make New Year's resolutions this year.\nDespite ongoing talks during the holiday break, the service contract between Anthem and the hospital expired Dec. 31, meaning thousands of IU employees likely face increased medical bills.\nThe added costs are due to the newly established out-of-network patient status that will not begin until March 1 because of a state law, according to a Bloomington Hospital news release. For the next 60 days, those people holding Anthem insurance will have a grace period where they will maintain their in-network status, according to the release.\nIf an agreement is not reached after the grace period, patients carrying Anthem insurance will still be able to receive treatment from the hospital, but at much higher costs.\nIn addition to being IU's health-care provider for employees, Anthem is also the state's largest health-insurance company, and recently some of the faculty and staff who will be affected by the dispute have expressed concern about paying pricier medical bills. \nFor the past several weeks, IU officials have maintained their optimism that the two sides would reach an agreement before the contract expired. Several IU trustees and Dan Rives, IU associate vice president for administration and university human resources, have said the University has not developed a plan if a new contract is not reached within the next two months. \n"A vast majority of these types of disputes between hospitals and health-care providers all get settled at the very end," Rives said. He said he wished the situation would have been settled before the Dec. 31 deadline and hoped the dispute would be resolved "as soon as possible."\nThe IU Human Resource Services' Web site has been updated regularly throughout the break to keep interested faculty and staff up-to-date on the situation. A letter was also sent to thousands of employees Dec. 20, explaining the negotiations and laying out general guidelines for the next few months if no agreement is reached.\nAt a Dec. 8 business meeting, talks did not mention the dispute or a University response, though a discussion of health care was on the agenda.\nThis is because the University has no real push in the situation, said Larry MacIntyre, IU director of media relations. Because IU officials have not been privy to any information from the closed-door discussions between Anthem and Bloomington Hospital, MacIntyre said there was not much the University could do to respond. \nSo far, Rives said, the closest IU has come to taking sides on the issue or wielding their influence over the negotiators is "indicating to Bloomington Hospital that we sincerely hope for a resolution." He would not say whether this meant the University believed Bloomington Hospital should concede to some of the Anthem's demands.\nNegotiations are still hinged on the "financial terms" of the new contract, Jim Myers, Bloomington Hospital's CFO, said in an e-mail interview. Even after the 60-day grace period ends, the two sides will continue to talk as long as officials from Bloomington Hospital believe a fair contract can be reached, he said.\nThe dispute stems from Anthem's demands to have the ability to amend its contract with the hospital at any time, to give out hospital price information to its customers and to place restrictions on changes in services or facilities at the hospital, according to a November Bloomington Hospital press release.\nIf the 60-day grace period expires before an agreement is reached, Anthem will also no longer be considered an in-network provider at PromptCare clinics and lab services at some doctor's offices in Bloomington. In addition, the Bloomington Hospital of Orange County, the Southern Indiana Medical Group and the Continuing Care Inc. facilities will all also be affected, according to a Bloomington Hospital fact sheet.