Empire BlueCross BlueShield HealthPlus and NYC Health + Hospitals Announce Agreement to Increase Access for Medicaid Managed Care Consumers
Empire HealthPlus Medicaid consumers will now have access to the nation's largest public health system, NYC Health + Hospitals
May 16, 2018
With a shared commitment to increase consumer access to high-quality, affordable health care, Empire BlueCross BlueShield HealthPlus (HealthPlus) and NYC Health + Hospitals are announcing they have finalized a new Medicaid managed care contract that will add NYC Health + Hospitals to HealthPlus’s care provider network. As a result, HealthPlus Medicaid consumers enrolled in managed care, Essential Plan, and Child Health Plus insurance plans will now have access to the wide range of services for children, adolescents, and adults at NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public health system in the country, which serves more than one million New Yorkers each year at 70 patient care locations across the city’s five boroughs.
HealthPlus’s affiliate, Empire BlueCross BlueShield (Empire), and NYC Health + Hospitals have also renewed agreements that will enable Empire’s commercial and Medicare Advantage consumers to continue having access to NYC Health + Hospitals’ providers. The agreements, which went into effect on May 1, 2018, are designed to expand treatment options while improving consumer safety, health care quality, and efficiency. Furthermore, the commercial agreement continues with NYC Health + Hospitals as an in-network provider for Empire consumers, whether they are enrolled through employer-sponsored coverage or health insurance exchange coverage.
“At HealthPlus, we are constantly seeking new opportunities to broaden our network to include more high quality health care services for our consumers,” said Jack Stephenson, President, Empire BlueCross and BlueShield HealthPlus. “The addition of NYC Health + Hospitals will make health care simpler for our commercial, Medicare and Medicaid consumers by increasing access to providers in their communities to help improve their health and wellbeing. We look forward to working with NYC Health + Hospitals to enhance our programs and services to ensure we continue to meet the dynamic needs of our consumers.”
“These agreements reflect growing recognition that our public health system must be included as an in-network participant of a world-class insurance network,” said Mitchell Katz, MD, President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals. “We are pleased that all Empire BlueCross BlueShield consumers will now have even smoother and easier access to all the essential health care services we offer across all five boroughs.”
To learn more about Empire, please visit www.empireblue.com. To learn more about NYC Health + Hospitals, please visit www.myhealthandhospitals.org.