In what has become a contract negotiation game of “chicken” between BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and CHI Memorial Health System, the pressure is on for the two health care giants to come to a mutually acceptable agreement – and soon.
In early September, if a new contract is not signed, the local health care market will be upended as longstanding insurer-provider-patient relationships are broken.
Without a new agreement, there will be plenty of losers: Patients will be forced to scramble to find new doctors or other providers, or pay far more for their care; BlueCross loses a valuable health care network; and Memorial loses the ability to care for thousands of patients and the revenue that comes with them.
BlueCross, the state’s largest health insurer, and CHI Memorial, now owned by CommonSpirit, the nation’s largest nonprofit health care system, explain what is at stake from their perspectives and why the months-long stalemate has persisted.
Here’s what each had to say: