Hamilton Health Care System and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia have reached an agreement to provide health care services for the University System of Georgia.

The agreement will allow any of the 50,000 employees and retirees of the university system, including those at Dalton State College, to receive care at either Hamilton Medical Center or Murray Medical Center as part of Blue Cross’ preferred provider organization (PPO) network. The agreement will also mean university employees and retirees will have access to more than 200 physicians in the area, according to Blue Cross.

In a statement, Blue Cross said Hamilton placed talks to cover all of Blue Cross’ PPO customers on hold on July 14. But Hamilton and Physicians Health Services, which represents almost all of the area’s doctors, say they will begin negotiations next month with Blue Cross and other major health insurance companies that may bring the hospitals and local doctors into those companies’ PPO networks.

“We are planning to start having language discussions, contract language discussions next month,” said David McCreery, president of Physicians Health Services. “That is the first step. Depending on how quickly they are willing to move on that, we are ready to proceed with at least the four major players in the marketplace.” Read more…

It has been many years since Americans or residents of Virginia to be particular expected their health insurance to be provided by their employers. More often than not, medical insurance plans came as standard addendum with most job offers. No wonder that most of the residents of Virginia never worried about paying their doctors and medical care bills.

But how the scene has changed? Why residents of Virginia are looking to buy medical insurance plans from private companies?

Though the reasons could be purely personal, yet there is a huge contribution made by the rising costs of healthcare, which has driven many companies to cut short their budget on providing medical insurance plans to their employees. Even companies that are offering medical coverage to its employees are limiting the budget to provide only basic coverage. It is obvious that not everybody would want only a basic medical coverage provided—lots of individuals and families in Virginia has to rely on comprehensive medical coverage. Read more…