JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida (BCBSF) and Halifax Medical Center, serving Volusia and Flagler counties, announced today a new three-year agreement effective February 1 that returns Halifax to the insurer’s provider network. BCBSF members covered by Traditional (PHS), BlueChoice (PPC), BlueCare (HMO), BlueOptions (NWB) and Workers Comp products are fully covered for the use of Halifax Medical Center and its facilities.
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Halifax has not been a participating provider in the BCBSF network since the last agreement between the two expired in October 2001. Negotiations to reach mutually acceptable terms have been ongoing with both sides seeking conditions beneficial to plan members and the hospital’s ability to provide high-quality services.
“We are pleased to welcome Halifax Medical Center into our HMO, PPO and traditional provider networks and look forward to working with them in offering health coverage solutions for our 47,000 members in Volusia and Flagler counties,” said Barry Schwartz, M.D., vice president care and network management. “We are particularly pleased that Halifax Medical Center has also joined NetworkBlue, the provider network that supports Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida’s newest family of health plans called BlueOptions. BlueOptions is focused on offering broad choices, services and capabilities that help members make informed decisions.”
Jeff Feasel, CEO of Halifax Community Health System, of which Halifax Medical Center is a part, said to System Board members in announcing the new agreement that “the negotiations with Blue Cross Blue Shield have been long, but we both have focused on assuring the healthcare consumer the highest quality coverage. We are pleased to again be part of the provider network and able to offer to many residents and visitors the access to care they have urged us to make possible.” Feasel said that effective work by Patient Business and Financial Service affiliate head Arvin Lewis in working with BCBSF representatives assured that “our working relationship with BCBSF will be stronger as a result of the prolonged negotiations and will more fully meet the needs of patients using our facilities.”
Halifax Medical Center is the major medical facility serving Volusia and Flagler counties, and includes The Family Birth Place; Neo-natal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units; the Kerman Regional Oncology Center; The Lung Center; The Halifax Heart Center; The Rehabilitation Center; The Women’s Health Place; The Fitness Center; The Wound Center and The Interventional Pain Center. The hospital offers branch campuses in Ormond Beach and Port Orange and Urgent Care Centers in Ormond Beach, Daytona Beach and Port Orange.
BCBSF is a leader in Florida’s health industry. BCBSF and its subsidiaries serve more than 6.6 million people. Since 1944 the company has been dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of all those it serves by offering an array of choices. BCBSF is a policyholder-owned, tax-paying mutual company. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, BCBSF is an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.
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CONTACT: Mark Wright of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida,+1-904-905-6935; or John Evans of Halifax Medical Center, +1-386-254-4228
Web site: http://www.bcbsfl.com/