Dive Brief:
- Aetna and Boston Children’s Hospital announced last week they have come to an agreement regarding reimbursement rates.
- The move averts an end to the pair's contract that had been slated to end this month.
- A breakup between the two would have disrupted medical care that Aetna's 200,000 Massachusetts members receive at Children’s.
Dive Insight:
The stalemate between Aetna and Boston Children's revolved around Children's attempt to increase payments for its group of New York-based physicians in order to reduce the gap between the hospital and its competitors, The Boston Globe reports.
Children's acquired the New York-based for-profit group Children's and Women's Physicians of Westchester last year. Aetna, meanwhile, said the hospital's payment demands were unacceptably high.
“Boston Children’s Hospital is pleased that we’ve reached agreement with Aetna assuring no patient will have care from their preferred caregiver interrupted,” hospital spokesman Rob Graham told the Globe.
The Globe's report did not indicate whether reimbursement rates had been adjusted, Becker's Hospital Review noted.