Blue Cross of California and Saint John's Health Center Agree to Multiyear Contract; Contract Effective Feb. 1, 2001.Business Editors & Health Writers THOUSAND OAKS & SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 2, 2001 Blue Cross of California, an operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :WLP WLP WebLogic Portal (Bea Systems) WLP Wafer Level Packaging WLP Women's Learning Partnership (Bethesda, MD) WLP Workplace Learning & Performance WLP World Library Partnership, Inc. ), and Saint John's Health Center Saint John's Health Center is a hospital in Santa Monica, California, USA. The hospital was founded in 1942 by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. New Construction in Santa Monica today announced the signing of a multiyear agreement for hospital services in the West Los Angeles
The new contract is effective Feb. 1, 2001. "We are pleased to reach an agreement," said Barry Ford, vice president of network development for Southern California. "Our goal has always been to reach a positive outcome so that our members may once again access the services of Saint John's Health Center." Ford noted that the multiyear agreement applies to Blue Cross of California's Prudent Buyer PPO PPO abbr. preferred provider organization PPO Managed care Preferred provider organization, see there Infectious disease Pleuropneumonia-like organism, see there , Blue Cross HMO HMO health maintenance organization. HMO n. A corporation that is financed by insurance premiums and has member physicians and professional staff who provide curative and preventive medicine within certain financial, and Blue Cross Senior Secure members. Blue Cross of California members will once again be able to access Saint John's as a participating provider effective Feb. 1. "We are delighted to once again welcome Blue Cross policy holders," said Saint John's chief executive officer, Bruce Lamoureux. "In recent months, representatives from Saint John's and Blue Cross have put forth tremendous effort in renegotiating a contract that will better serve our physicians and patients." Saint John's Health Center, located at 1301 Santa Monica Blvd., in Santa Monica, is a full-service hospital with particular focus in heart, cancer, orthopedics and women's services. The facility was recently named "One of the Top 100 Orthopedics Hospitals in the Country." In addition, Saint John's is in the process of completely rebuilding its entire facility, with principal buildings scheduled to be completed in 2002. The facility will remain open and operational during the entire rebuild process. Blue Cross of California, with 5.4 million medical members in the state, is the California operating subsidiary of WellPoint Health Networks, one of the nation's largest publicly traded health-care companies. WellPoint serves the health-care needs of more than 7.7 million medical and more than 38 million specialty members nationally. WellPoint offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based health products, including open access PPO, POS (1) See point of sale and packet over SONET. (2) "Parent over shoulder." See digispeak. POS - point of sale and hybrid products, HMO and specialty products. Specialty products include pharmacy benefit management A Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) is a third party administrator of prescription drug programs. They are primarily responsible for processing and paying prescription drug claims. , dental, utilization management, vision, mental health, life and disability insurance, long-term-care insurance, flexible spending accounts, COBRA administration and Medicare supplements. |
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