Senate Democrats took aim Monday at health insurance powerhouse Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, as they denounced the company as being more focused on profit than people in its financial standoff with Grady Health System.
“I don’t want one service at Grady to be paid at a lower rate than other hospitals,” state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta said on the chamber floor.”Blue Cross/Blue Shield needs to have a plan and a strategy to treat Grady fairly.”
The statement came after representatives of the insurance giant visited the chamber’s minority party during an early morning caucus meeting.
The dispute between Grady and Blue Cross began more than two months ago, after nearly a year of contract renewal talks broke off and a coverage agreement between the two expired. Thousands of Blue Cross customers who currently use Grady Memorial Hospital are being charged “out of network” prices.
Grady has accused Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia of paying Grady less than it pays other hospitals for outpatient services.
Blue Cross has said the state’s leading trauma hospital wants a rate increase “several times” the rate of inflation, and that it would have to charge consumers more to pay it.
Blue Cross customers accounted for about 20,000 patient visits to Grady last year, the hospital has said. Only about 11 percent of Grady patients have private insurance, and most of them are covered by Blue Cross.
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