8 recently inked payer-provider contracts

Payers are settling disputes with health systems and adding new value-based contracts. 

Here are eight contract updates Becker's has reported since Dec. 9. 

1. Cigna and Titusville, Fla.-based Parrish Healthcare reached a new multi-year contract that will keep the payer's members in-network with Parrish Medical Center and Parrish Medical Group physicians. 
   
   
2. Independence Blue Cross and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health agreed to a long-term contract renewal that will expand value-based care and add Einstein Health Network and Jefferson Health New Jersey to Independence's network. 
   
   
3. Independent Health inked a two-year agreement with Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health. The system, which operates five hospitals in Western New York and has 900 affiliated physicians, is still attempting to reach a contract with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York. 
   
   
4. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson reached a contract agreement, ending one of the more intense payer-provider disputes over reimbursement rates in 2022. Terms of the in-network agreement are mostly confidential but went into effect Dec. 15.
   
   
5. Regence BlueShield and Seattle-based Virginia Mason Franciscan Health are partnering to launch an accountable health network Jan. 1 they say will provide "affordable, accessible and high-quality care to patients across the Puget Sound region." Physicians who are part of the network will operate under a value-based care model. 
   
   
6. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has created a financial payment model that rewards health systems and physicians for eliminating racial and ethnic inequalities to care. Four of the state's health systems have signed the value-based payment contracts as of Dec. 15. 
   
   
7. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and six physician organizations are launching a full-risk reimbursement arrangement for their Medicare Advantage PPO and Blue Care Network Medicare Advantage plans. 
   
   
8. As of Dec. 9, more than 2,000 independent pharmacies will rejoin Tricare's network, managed by Cigna's Express Scripts. After Kroger said its 2,200 pharmacies would no longer participate in the network, Express Scripts sent out contract solicitations in December in an effort to bring some of the 15,000 independent pharmacies who had left back in-network.