Anthem Blue Cross adds St. Rose Dominican facilities
Southern Nevadans insured through Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield now have access to each of St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' three medical facilities in the Las Vegas Valley.
On Tuesday, the hospital chain and insurance provider announced an agreement that adds St. Rose Dominican Hospitals' Siena, Rose de Lima and San Martin campuses into Anthem's network of hospital providers.
That means patients won't have to pay out-of-pocket costs for emergency, outpatient or inpatient care, said Andy North, a spokesman for St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, which is operated by Catholic Healthcare West.
"This is beneficial to us and it's beneficial to Anthem's members,'' he said. "In the past, Anthem members could utilize our emergency services because we accept all patients regardless of insurance. However, they would have to pay non-contracted rates. We'd only admit them on a case-by-case basis. There aren't those limitations anymore.''
Between the three hospitals, St. Rose Dominican Hospitals has more than 470 acute care beds and offers a full range of services including most surgical procedures, care in obstetrics and pediatrics, wound healing and open heart surgery, bariatric weight loss surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, wound healing and oncology. Each of the three hospitals has emergency rooms and offers community outreach.
Mike Murphy, president of Anthem, called the agreement a "pretty big" move for its members.
"We haven't had a contract with St. Rose in over seven years,'' he said. "This is a nice addition to the services we provide our members. ... We're now the only carrier in Las Vegas with all the hospitals in our network.''
Murphy said he didn't know how many of Anthem's 98,914 Clark County members would utilize St. Rose hospitals. However, since taking over as president in November, one of the biggest issues brought to his attention centered around members having access to the St. Rose hospitals.
In all, Anthem provides health insurance to 326,000 Nevadans.
