Three months after their previous contract ended, Northeast Georgia Health System and Georgia’s largest insurer reached an agreement Monday on a new deal that restores network status to thousands of consumers.
The long-running contract dispute had attracted the interest of major state lawmakers and had unnerved many patients of the Gainesville-based system who have Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance. Northeast Georgia has hospitals in Gainesville, Braselton, Winder and Dahlonega, dominating medical care in those areas.
Consumers in those areas faced a tough choice during open enrollment periods: whether to sign up for an Anthem health plan and lose network access to those hospitals, or choose another health plan with Northeast Georgia as a network provider.
Since the last contract ended Sept. 30, Northeast Georgia Health System had been spending millions of dollars to ensure patients weren’t hit with out-of-network costs for visiting its physicians and hospitals. But that arrangement was set to run out Jan. 1.
Two powerful members of the Georgia General Assembly said recently that Anthem and Northeast Georgia were “close to an agreement in principle’’ on a new contract. Senate President Pro Tempore Butch Miller (R–Gainesville) and Rep. Terry England (R–Auburn), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a joint statement in late December that “the parties have documents in hand that are moving towards a deal.’’
