Valley Children's VS State Blue Cross Program

So there was an article in the Fresno Bee yesterday on the canceled contract between the Blue Cross Healthy Families program and Valley Children's Hospital. I had a huge issue with the fact that the article was more than half way through before they mentioned that Blue Cross only canceled the Healthy Families and Medi-Cal programs, not the private insurance contracts.

The real crux of the issue is that everyone seems to feel that Valley Children's has done something wrong. This article (and other things I have seen) points out the fact that kids will have to get care from a lesser provider now. How is that Valley Children's fault? If they are so much better than any other provider perhaps they deserve compensation? Maybe all the fault lies with Blue Cross? They are other Healthy Family/Medi-Cal companies that Valley Children's does accept. Maybe the other companies realize the value of a hospital of Valley Children's stature.

I also look at this as a community issue. I value Valley Children's. I like knowing that a hospital with this expertise is available to my kids. It won't be if we demand they take substandard compensation. If they don't make enough money to stay open they will close or worse charge the rest of us twice as much. So maybe we should back the hospital in this case? And maybe The Bee and other media outlets should put out such biased reports. This is still a free market society, lets act like it.

Technorati Tags: Valley Children's Hospital, Healthy Families, Blue Cross, Fresno Bee