Insurance company Florida Blue has a little over a month to come to the negotiating table and hash out a deal with Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH), or the provider will be dropped for more than 40,000 patients.
"From publicly transparent data, we know that NCH gets paid 40% less than other health care providers in our region for the same services. In addition to that, we have inflationary factors, such as costs of nurse's salaries, clinical salaries, medication costs, and more. We know it will be it's hard for us to keep up with that," said Jon Kling, the Chief Operating Officer at NCH.
Currently, Florida Blue customers at NCH will not be impacted. However, if a deal is not reached by September 30th, those patients will be forced to pay out of pocket.
"What's going to happen is continuity of care can be disrupted. patients who have known their doctors for years will have to go outside of that practice, or go outside of their community, maybe even drive long distances. The most important thing is that that care is provided," added Kling.
Florida Blue provided this response to NBC2 News when questioned about the potential fallout:
"We are currently in negotiations and doing everything we can to reach an agreement with Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH) -- to avoid health care disruption for our members and keep the area’s health care as affordable as possible. NCH continues to demand excessive rates without a commitment to improve the efficiency of care, which would only result in higher costs for those in the community, many of whom are already struggling financially. As primary and essential provider in Southwest Florida, Naples Comprehensive Health has a responsibility to NOT use its dominance in a way that would burden the community with higher health costs. We remain hopeful NCH will agree to terms that support high-quality care and do not unreasonably drive up the cost of care for individuals and employers. Please visit https://www.FloridaBlue.com/Negotiation/NaplesComprehensiveHealth(NCH) for more information," - Spokesperson for Florida Blue.