I'm glad I ditched my Regence Medicare Advantage plan last November, switching to a Providence Medicare Advantage plan after getting a letter from Salem Health warning that negotiations were ongoing with Regence over renewing a contract for in-network services that expired at the end of the year.
For it turned out that December 31 came and went with no agreement between Regence and Salem Health. A Salem Reporter story, "Thousands of Regence members to lose in-network care at Salem Health, insurer says," tells the sorry tale.
Thousands of people insured through Regence will have to pay more to get care at Salem Health hospitals and clinics starting Wednesday, the insurance company announced.
The health system will be out-of-network on Jan. 1 for Regence BlueCross BlueShield members after the insurance company and Salem’s only hospital system failed to agree on a new contract.
...About 30,000 people in Marion and Polk counties are insured through Regence, and about a third of them use Salem Health on a regular basis, Dr. Zak Ramadan-Jradi, Regence’s vice president of network management, said to Salem Reporter in October.
It's kind of a pain to switch Medicare Advantage plans, but I figured it was better to do this than be stuck in the middle of the dispute between Regence and Salem Health -- each of whom blames the other for being greedy money-grubbers who care more about enriching themselves than caring for people.
The way I see it, they're both right.
While I'm satisfied with the medical services I get from Salem Health, it bothers me that Salem Health is gobbling up previously independent clinics, becoming ever more dominant in our local health care scene. Also, that the Salem Health CEO makes over a million dollars a year, I'm pretty sure.
I've also been satisfied with my Regence Medicare Advantage plan, which I've had since I became eligible for Medicare eleven years ago. I signed up for the plan after joking with my Salem Health primary care doctor about me turning 65 soon and asking her if she was going to stop seeing me once I was on Medicare.
She said with a more serious tone, "We lose money on each Medicare patient we see, but we basically break even on Medicare Advantage patients." That was part of the reason I signed up for the Regence Medicare Advantage plan, with added benefits (like a discount on my athletic club membership) being another reason.
However, deciding whether a giant health insurance company or a giant health care provider is more deserving of my affection is like choosing between poison ivy and poison oak. They're both irritating -- again, I'm talking about corporate management here, not regular employees or medical staff, who do a good job, by and large.
Now that I have a Providence Medicare Advantage plan, news reports of a looming strike by Providence nurses and doctors have caught my eye. This won't affect me, just Providence patients in the Portland area. It's still disturbing, though.
For contract disputes and strikes by medical personnel are a side effect of our crazy American health care system. We're the only high income country in the world that lacks some sort of national health care where getting needed services isn't dependent on the whims of insurance companies and corporate medical providers.
We citizens put up with that crap because there's no other option. Most people aren't able to afford "boutique medicine" where if you can pay with cash, medical professionals provide a level of care that is way more convenient and accessible than what insured people get.
Unfortunately, during the next four years of the Trump administration we'll be fortunate to not have health care in this country slide backward. Maintaining the crazy status quo is the most I'm hoping for.
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