River Park the hero after absorbing financial hit
When it comes to local health care, Warren County residents depend on River Park Hospital. There’s no other way to state it.
And when it comes to insurance, a great many Warren countians rely on Blue Cross Blue Shield as their provider. Whether they are teachers with the school system or employees at Bridgestone, thousands of local residents have Blue Cross as their insurance provider.
That’s why the recent contract negotiations between HCA — River Park’s parent company — and Blue Cross drew considerable interest. It’s also why there was cause for alarm when contract negotiations broke down earlier this month.
But amid the corporate greed that prevented two health care giants from agreeing on a contract, HCA has shown its compassionate side. HCA says it will not charge out-of-network fees to Blue Cross patients for the rest of the year. Instead, the corporation and its individual hospitals will absorb the out-of-network expenses and the bill will remain the same for Blue Cross patients.
This is a noble gesture and one which shows the corporation, and its local hospitals like River Park, are committed to providing health care at a price that’s as affordable as possible. And affordable health care is one of the biggest challenges which is currently facing this nation.
The health care horror stories have been well documented and difficult to believe at times. When patients are charged $5 for a cotton ball, or $20 for an aspirin, or $160 to have their name and address entered into a computer, it is cause for alarm.
It’s that sort of behavior which makes it hard to believe hospitals are committed to providing affordable health care. But in this day of state-of-the-art equipment, million dollar lawsuits, and soaring malpractice lawsuits, that’s become the unfortunate nature of the beast. For many Americans, health care is no longer affordable and their inability to pay only compounds the problem for the rest of us.
As we’ve seen in this state with TennCare, correcting the problems with our health care system is no easy task. A ready-made solution certainly isn’t going to appear in the words of this column.
But the Standard can praise the efforts of River Park and HCA for trying to make a difference and for trying to ease an already cumbersome burden. While it may have made better financial sense to force Blue Cross patients to pay out-of-network fees, HCA has instead decided to lend a helping hand.
Ultimately, HCA and Blue Cross must resolve their differences or both corporations will suffer. And when that happens, that suffering will trickle down to individuals in the form of higher hospital bills.
For now, however, HCA and River Park are left looking like the heroes. They’ve saved the day, at least until the end of this year.