After seven months of wrangling, Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center Administrator Kimber Wraalstad signed a letter of understanding that will continue the facility’s status as a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota provider through 2014.
Earlier this year, Blue Cross informed critical access hospitals across the state that they were requiring a new billing system that would require completely different coding and result in lower overall reimbursements. For North Shore Hospital, this would have meant an estimated cut of $300,000.
Administrator Wraalstad will now be negotiating with Blue Cross on a contract for 2015 with a goal of having this in place by July.
Wraalstad told the Cook County News-Herald that under the agreement for 2014, the hospital will use the new coding system and will purchase 3M software in order to do it. “We will be in a learning mode in medical records and the business office,” she said. “The financial impact is unknown at this time because of the significant change to the reimbursement structure.”
In a December 4, 2013 email to hospital and care center employees, whose insurance coverage is with Blue Cross, Wraalstad said, “I am pleased that we were able to come to an agreement with Blue Cross so that the community members and visitors to Cook County will continue to have in-network access to services at Cook County North Shore Hospital and Care Center.”
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