"At the

end of the day, these negotiations failed because WellPoint/Blue Cross

has a proprietary stake in another physician network and did not want

PROMINA's physician network competing with it," said Frank Rinker,

President and CEO of Gwinnett Health System. "By taking the position

they have taken, WellPoint/Blue Cross is saying to thousands of Atlanta

health care consumers, 'We are not going to let you choose your own doctors;

we'll choose them for you.'"

PROMINA urged

WellPoint/Blue Cross to at least allow the patients to continue with PROMINA

doctors until the first of the year. That way, patients can choose another

plan or carrier during the upcoming open enrollment period. WellPoint/Blue

Cross rejected that offer, opting instead to move patients to new primary

care physicians immediately.

"To the

patients, we want to express our deep regret for their inconvenience,"

says Frank Rinker, president and CEO of Gwinnett Health System. "Blue

Cross put our patients and our physicians in a lose-lose position. We

either accepted the contract without all of our doctors or accepted no

HMO contract at all. Either way, the patients could lose their doctor."

In medical

emergencies, members can still go to the closest emergency room and Blue

Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia HMO members should be receiving other

instructions from Blue Cross within a matter of days.

Back

to Healthwise Home Page |