This week, the CEOs of both the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) and North Carolina Hospital Association (NCHA) sent a letter to Brad Wilson, CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC), urging him to stop the recent public relations offensive his company has launched against North Carolina doctors and hospitals. The print and radio ads inappropriately accuse providers of “double billing” and obstructing the insurer’s cost containment efforts. “We are astounded that Blue Cross would sacrifice its credibility with physicians, hospitals, legislators, employers, and others with a misleading media campaign,” the letter says. The letter goes on to urge BCBSNC to work collaboratively and constructively to identify strategies that address costs without hurting patient care or violating the contractual rights of network providers.
The message and timing of the campaign are both perplexing, especially in light of BCBSNC’s other recent long-running media campaign admonishing the public to “stop looking for scapegoats” in our broader conversations about health care costs. Now BCBSNC has opted to blame physicians and hospitals simply because regulators have determined that, under state law, BCBSNC must first offer formal contract amendments before a provider’s fee schedule may be modified.
Related Bulletin articles:
Blue Cross Retreats on Imaging Reimbursement Reductions (5-25-12)
BCBSNC Pursues Appeal of DOI Decision on Multiple Radiology Reduction Policy (3-2-12)
DOI Sides with Medicine, Blocks Controversial BCBSNC Radiology Policy (12-9-11)
Joint Complaint Filed Over BCBSNC Radiology Services Reimbursement Policy (10-28-12)
UPDATE: BCBSNC’s Radiology Services Reimbursement Policy Revised and Reposted (10-7-12)
Blue Cross ads target hospital billing (7-20-12, The Charlotte Observer)
at 4:59 pm
Dear Fellow Independent Physicians,
This is another BCBS policy to treat all of us as a “captive Slave” and pay us very little(in some cases below Medicare rates)but expect too much in return. DO you all know that BCBS is paying a large Hospital system employed physicians/Practices almost twice as much as we get for the same services, and telling all of us that our FEE schedule is NOT negotiable?? WHY??? BCBS want to blame Doctors for HealthCare cost but not paying us what we deserve. Where is all that money going??? Why not BCBS post Fee Schedule online?? Let all people find out what their doctors are getting paid from Isurance company.