In the past, my perception of the American Civil Liberties Union has been predominantly negative, for it often seemed to go to great lengths to find some obscure fault with well-meaning legislation or a logical rule of law. However, in the case its current focus on PeaceHealth, perhaps some meaningful good might result.
I have twice been treated at PeaceHealth and found their services excellent. However, recently I received a disturbing notification from my Medicare supplemental insurance carrier saying that PeaceHealth was no longer part of their “network.”
In disbelief, I did some checking; sure enough, PeaceHealth was dropped from their list of approved “network” hospitals. This means that in the future, should I seek health care at PeaceHealth, I would incur a huge out-of-pocket expense.
Generally, we assume that when a health care provider is excluded from the network of a particular insurance company, that the two sides simply could not agree to a satisfactory financial arrangement. But is there more here than first meets the eye?
