CareFirst Responds To Anne Arundel Health System Contract Negotiations

The following corporate statement is in response to Anne Arundel Health System’s July 17 announcement that it plans to terminate its contract with CareFirst, effective Oct. 1, 2017, for physician services and Jan. 1, 2018, for hospital services:

Baltimore, MD (July 21, 2017) - We have always considered Anne Arundel Health System to be a cost-effective, high-quality system that serves our members well. We now find ourselves presented with a request for very high fee increases for their specialists and other related services.

Given the impact of this request on our members -- whether they be individuals or groups -- this increase would create a burden we believe is unjustified and unsupportable.

If one considers that wages are increasing 2 percent to 3 percent per year, Anne Arundel has sought increases in their professional fees that are many multiples of these numbers. There is simply no way we can justify such increases.

Between now and the time the termination would become effective, we're hopeful we can resolve this matter with them. But at a time when concern with rising health care cost is at an acute level, we feel a great obligation to protect our members from Anne Arundel Health System’s proposed high increases.

Read CareFirst President and CEO Chet Burrell's open letter to the community.

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