Hospital officials argued Aetna’s rates were one-third of those offered at Salinas (Calif.) Valley Memorial Hospital, according to the article.
An Aetna spokesperson said Hazel Hawkins’ contract proposal called for rate hikes the insurer could not sustain.
The dispute has trickled down to area physicians. The physician group San Benito Medical Associates has also been removed from Aetna’s network, as its physicians often refer patients to Hazel Hawkins.
“The independent physicians in the community are being held hostage to force the hospital into an agreement with Aetna,” Martin Bress, MD, president of San Benito Medical Associates, said in a letter to the state insurance commissioner, reports Freelance.
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