CommonSpirit’s CHI St. Luke’s on Friday reached a new contract agreement with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, ending a dispute that could have prevented 65,000 patients on those plans from accessing its hospitals.
Houston-based CHI St. Luke’s had pushed BCBSTX for a price increase in the middle of its current contract, which expires at the end of 2021. The health system threatened to take its 16 Texas hospitals out-of-network for Blue Cross and Blue Shield by Dec. 16 if the two companies didn’t reach an agreement.
“As this new agreement goes into effect, our focus remains where it has always been—on patients,” St. Luke’s Health President Douglas Lawson said in a statement. “We’re eager to continue working with those BCBSTX customers who have remained under our care, and to working with those who find themselves in need of hospital-based care in the future.”
The new contract went into