Tenet on Cigna dispute: Being forced out of network is 'unsure-ance'

Several Tenet Healthcare facilities in Massachusetts and other states are set to go out of network with Cigna Jan. 1. In recent ads with Worcester, Mass.-based Telegram & Gazette, the health system has called Cigna "unsure-ance" due to the dispute.

Here are four things to know:

1. Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare and Cigna have failed to reach a contract agreement after 11 months of talks. If the two parties are unable to reach an agreement by Dec. 31, commercially insured individuals will lose in-network access to several Tenet hospitals, physician clinics, freestanding surgery centers, imaging centers and urgent care centers.

2. In a recent ad with the Telegram & Gazette, Tenet wrote, "If you have Cigna, you have health unsureance." In the ad, "unsure" is emphasized in a different color.

3. Tenet spokesperson Lesley Bogdanow told the Telegram & Gazette that "If we're forced out of network, then they're (consumers are) paying premiums for a partial network. So there are less providers that they can choose from. Our position is that Cigna shouldn't get to choose where you go." She continued: "And, by dropping us from their network and refusing to provide us fair reimbursement, that's exactly what they’re trying to do. So that's 'unsureance' from an employer's perspective. And, also, from a patient's perspective, it's about disrupting access to trusted providers."

4. On its website "Save Our Healthcare," Cigna said, "Tenet Healthcare is a national healthcare chain that is putting its business ahead of people in the communities where they operate. Despite our repeated efforts to find common ground with them, we are unable to reach an agreement on what healthcare should cost at their facilities." Members in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are more at-risk to be affected if the contract expires, Cigna said on its website.

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