Cigna's contract with Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare is set to expire Jan. 1, 2019, as the two failed to reach an agreement after 11 months of negotiations.
Here's what you should know:
1. Cigna customers in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas could lose their current in-network providers over the dispute, according to a website Cigna launched.
2. Cigna's website claims Tenet is requesting "unreasonable prices that will make commercial healthcare plans unaffordable." In a statement to the Memphis Business Journal, a Cigna representative said, "We continue to negotiate in good faith with Tenet and hope to reach an agreement."
3. A Tenet representative said in a statement to MBJ, "We are negotiating in good faith and Cigna insists on misrepresenting the facts and taking steps backwards, demanding excessive, unreasonable rate cuts that will result in the wrong outcome for our patients, employees and the communities we serve."
4. Nearly 140,000 Cigna customers have used facilities in Tenet's network, including 146 surgery centers and 70 hospitals, according to Cigna's website on the matter.
5. Cigna's website claims Tenet has a history of "systematically increasing prices" after purchasing outpatient surgery centers. Cigna said prices for a medical procedure at one surgery center increased from $333 to $1,652 after the ASC was acquired by Tenet, based on an analysis of internal customer and provider contract data.