Monroe Hospital still accepting Anthem insurance

Bloomington Hospital may not accept Anthem insurance -- IU's primary health-care provider -- from new members, but Bloomington residents have another local option less than six miles away. \nMonroe Hospital, 4011 S. Tiwari Blvd., expects more business in lieu of Anthem's pending decision to renew contracts with Bloomington Hospital, said Dean Melton, the hospital's president and CEO.\n"We think that's going to be a benefit for us," Melton said. "We will take all we can handle. It should help to increase utilization of Monroe Hospital."\nAnthem Insurance and Bloomington Hospital had not reached an agreement by Dec. 31 of last year, the deadline for renewing contracts. Officially, Bloomington Hospital is considered out of Anthem's network but within the 60-day continuation period, according to a news release from Bloomington Hospital CFO Jim Myers. \nBut Melton thinks either Bloomington Hospital or Anthem will concede soon.\n"I would anticipate in the not too distant future a strong possibility that Bloomington will have a new contract with Anthem," Melton said. \nThough Monroe Hospital has only 32 beds for inpatient care, Melton said he expects Monroe's new intensive-care unit to be usable within a month and a half.\n"We're really geared for a larger capacity on the outpatient side of things," Melton said. "We certainly will do everything we can to handle all the business that will show up on our doorstep."\nMonroe Hospital became an Anthem Insurance provider Dec. 15 after opening in October 2006.\n"We want to put ourselves in a position so that insurance doesn't end up dictating where patients who essentially want to come to us can or can not come because of their insurance," Melton said. \nMelton said Monroe Hospital's ultimate goal is to have contracts with every commercial health-insurance provider, a mission Myers partly applauds.\n"We commend Monroe Hospital for signing a contract with Anthem," Myers said in the news release. "We encourage consumers, however, to verify the hospital's scope of services prior to choosing that facility to ensure their needs can be met."\nMelton said he and his staff have fielded many calls and received many compliments from IU employees about Monroe Hospital's service, though the hospital is not as large as Bloomington.\n"If there would be a huge, huge influx and one time we could get to the point where we would have to defer patients, but that certainly would not be our goal," Melton said. "We'd try to do everything we can to take care of everyone that comes here."\nWilliam Bianco, an IU professor of political science, said the dropping of the insurance from Bloomington Hospital reduces the options for everyone.\n"I'm worried anytime access to affordable health care is curtailed," he said. "The implications of Bloomington Hospital not being in the Anthem network are potentially pretty profound."\n--City & State Editor Kristi Oloffson contributed to this report.