Blue Cross, Piedmont strike deal

Governor had threatened to take ‘executive action’ before sides made a ‘handshake deal’ in his office.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Piedmont Healthcare have struck a deal to renew their contract, Gov. Nathan Deal said Tuesday.

The governor in a tweet called it a “handshake deal.”

“The handshake deal means that we have full agreement on the major issues of the contract,

and what remains is for us to put that all on paper and sign it,” said Matt Gove, a spokesman for Piedmont. “I’m certain that there will be small items that need some discussion before it’s put on a piece of paper. But the major issues that were holding this deal up

over the past two weeks, over the past day and a half even, we have complete agreement on those.”

Deal added that the agreement will grandfather in the extra costs that Piedmont patients with Blue Cross incurred during the two-plus weeks they were out of network.

All those patients are now considered in network, Gove said, as if they never lost coverage.

A spokesman for Anthem Inc., the parent company of Blue Cross, confirmed Deal’s statement.

The two companies have been at odds for months over their contract renewal. The rift broke open when the contract expired April 1 without a deal. At issue is how

much money Blue Cross will pay Piedmont for its services.

When the contract ended, about 2 million Georgians who had Blue Cross insur- ance and the ability to see a Piedmont provider were suddenly out of network with Piedmont. About 500,000 of those people were recent Piedmont patients, seeing one of its health care provid- ers within the past 18 months.

Being out of network means much higher out-of- pocket costs for a patient.

Deal on Monday met with leaders of the two compa- nies, and he tweeted that he would initiate “execu- tive action” if they did not resolve their dispute by “close of business” Tues- day. He said the final deal was struck Tuesday after- noon in his office.

Deal is in a special posi- tion. He leads not only the state, but state employees; and nearly 600,000 state workers, teachers, retirees and dependents have Blue Cross as part of the state’s health plan.

State officials have said that “executive action” could mean a number of things, including declaring a special open-enrollment period for state employees with Blue Cross to switch insurance companies. Colin Manning, the spokesman for Anthem, did not immediately respond about whether it agreed that the governor had that authority.

Neither side had an estimate of when the contract would be signed.