Jackson Jambalaya

Whoa. That’s not what the release says. According to the press release, Blue Cross is merely offering to reinstate coverage for four HMA hospitals IF HMA drops its lawsuit.

Bullshit! Arrogance again. They are desperate. Screw BCBS!

It's a PR stunt. They don't want to be revealed as more interested in profits than babies or rural patients who have no other alternative. I suspect the real money is at River Oaks and CMMC, who BC/BS is continuing to shaft.

Baseless my ass. BCBS agreed to pay X. Wanted to pay less, HMA said no. BCBS free to end contract, NOT to unilaterally pay less than the contract.

Good for BC/BS. sue me then screw you. If they don't like it maybe they will like the govt pay system better. LOL.

Shame, Shame, Shame on Blue Cross. They are crooked, greedy and shady. They are holding us hostage for their profits. Why isnt our insurance commissioner involved?

Remember greed is out of the equation now with Obamacare, companies are required to pay out 85 percent to direct medical cost. So 15 percent is left at max to pay salaries, overhead, claims adjudication, and utilities. If a company pays out 100 percent in medical cost and has an 10-15 percent loss they can't make it up with the next years rate increase because they are bound to the 85 percent by law. HMA hospitals are charging more than double for the same diagnosis than St Dominic's, Baptist, and UMC. The documentation was provided to the legislature. I would like to see more facts presented and less inflammatory smeer campaigns.

1:03, that is garbage. HMA's "charges" are accounting tricks to make their indigent care more of a writeoff. Insured patients dont pay that. What BCBS actually paid HMA was EXACTLY what BCBS contracted to pay ... at least, until BCBS quit fulfilling the contract. I've seen a copy of the complaint. If you have a response to THAT and not just the usual BCBS spin, tell us abt it.

What BCBS doesn't want is to have to produce documents in court. They don't want forensic accountants looking at their books.

They are a non-profit, so go after them!

7:47am, they are NOT a non-profit, that ended many years ago. I'm sick and tired of the BCBS spin. HMA is being investigated on a national level by the federal government for overcharging. How come that isn't ever mentioned?

This is not contingent on the lawsuit being dropped. They can be back in network if they choose to, it's up to HMA.

""willing to re-connect with some HMA hospitals if HMA would permanently dismiss its baseless lawsuit. HMA has refused," said Meredith VIrden, Manager, Corporate Communications."

sounds like a contingency to me.

7:28 if BCBS is only paying HMA their contract price like the other Hospitals then that is a different story, they claim to have proof of add ons to bills. If HMA is showing three times the bill for indigent write care write offs than the other hospitals that is not an accounting trick, that's tax evasion and they have big problems. It would not be a smart move by BCBS to let other carriers have a perceived better network in the metro area that they have had a network stranglehold on for eons. BCBS has started giving out numbers to support there side while HMA has only done a smear campaign. It is going to be interesting to see how it shakes out but HMA is just using PR and pressure tactics with no evidence to support their position so far as I have seen.

Read the next paragraph... It says since they won't, these 4 have been offered to come back in. Significant differences exist on the remaining 6.

Since when does an insurance co dictate what a private entity can charge? BCBS can dictate what it will pay in covered charges, but that’s it. And may I also say—holy shit—when I read the press line that says, we’ll do this if you drop the lawsuit. Whoever decided to put that item in there should be fired.

BCBS will not win this fight.

Well 10:51 that settles that, HMA should have no problem with their govt. case on over charging and fraudulent billing either. I guess that is mute to this argument of over billing and fraudulent charges as well

http://msbusiness.com/businessblog/2013/10/15/hma-pleased-blue-cross-reinstatement-4-hospitals-bemoans-continued-squeeze/

A friend of mine whos wifes cancer returned went to a river oaks facility to inquire about the surgerys cost. He was told $87,000. When he told them he had no insurance and what would it cost if he wrote a bank check that day. He was quoted $8600 for the same proceedure!!!!

How can a hospital do that?

I was told at my employer by their insurance writer The Entegrity Group who provides MCBSMS to us that we were resposible for negotiating with any HMA hospital.

"A friend of mine whos wifes cancer returned went to a river oaks facility to inquire about the surgerys cost. He was told $87,000. When he told them he had no insurance and what would it cost if he wrote a bank check that day. He was quoted $8600 for the same proceedure!!!!

How can a hospital do that?"

Simple - many companies give cash discounts to customers who pay in advance, in cash. No financing, no monthly statements, etc. The "retail" charges are basically Monopoly money. If the charge read $87,000 it is quite possible they were willing to collect $8600 from BC/BS or any insurer and call it even. The insurers market their product by bragging about how much they will save you by negotiating with a hospital (in this case, 90%). But the hospital cannot just drop their "retail" price to $8600, because then the insurer would only pay $860 (another 90% discount).

This is not unique to River Oaks - this has been done at every hospital where I have ever practices (that's about 15 or so).

The post above is an excellent example of HMAs pattern of misinformation. In their press releases and many of the posts on here it has been indicated that it doesn't matter what we charge, BCBSMS will pay the contracted amount. When someone above provides an example of their excessive charges, they come back and say we have to charge that high or the insurer won't pay enough...well, which is it? Whichever fits, right?
And sure, you can get a discount paying cash up in other businesses, but 90%? Yeah, right.
So what happens if the friend doesn't have the cash to pay up front? The hospital sets him up on a payment plan, sells the receivable to a collection agency for pennies on the dollar and collects with a healthy profit margin intact. The collection agency does its thing and hopefully nobody ends up bankrupt, but they sure wont care.
Do you really want to do business (much less make health decisions) with someone telling you " Don't worry about those silly prices, it's just Monopoly money"

didn't know bcbs paid folks to post on website comments.

6:29---do work for the monopolistic-for-profit insurance company, BCBS of MS?
BCBS should be ashamed of the incredibly high premiums small businesses like mine pay to cover our hardworking employees...while restricting our hospital choices under the guise of controlling their charges (?) and claiming our latest premium hike is related to Obamacare. I'm asking our office manager to shop our group insurance plan with the very limited list of other options for health insurance in the tri-county area for our 20 person group of professionals.

HMA doesnt care about the patients, which is evident by them declining BCBSMS's offer. HMA only cares about the money. Do your own research and quit listening to the lies HMA is spreading. It doesnt take long googling HMA to know that they do this crap everywhere. When the facts come out, i think bcbs will win this. However bcbs is making a stupid mistake by just now commenting on this case all while HMA has been in full on assault mode. BCBS should have been out in front of this countering with the facts.

"HMA doesnt care about the patients, which is evident by them declining BCBSMS's offer. HMA only cares about the money"

Oh, so drop the suit for 4 hospitals and the rest continue to be excluded?

HMA and BC are BOTH out to make money. Anyone who pretends one or the other isn't, is selling something.

BC wants to talk about anything other than the lawsuit. What's that tell us? Did they agree to pay HMA a set rate? Did they quit paying it?

9:40
BCBSMS set the rate in the contract with HMA, then decided they wanted more money.

6:29
are you a Pigot ?