Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Dallas-based Tenet announces national agreement with CIGNA

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — Tenet Healthcare Corporation today announced that it has signed a new multi-year agreement with CIGNA Corporation including all of Tenet’s 54 acute care hospitals, outpatient centers and employed physicians. The agreement includes a provision to include any new facilities that might be added to Tenet’s portfolio. With CIGNA’s planned acquisition of Great-West Healthcare, Tenet now has all of its acute care hospitals included in the networks of both managed care companies.

Photo not provided by Tenet

Many patients, like the one above, spoke highly of the move

“We are pleased that CIGNA has agreed to expand our relationship with the addition of nine Tenet hospitals to their network,” said Stephen L. Newman, M.D., Tenet’s chief operating officer. “With this expanded contract, we move incrementally closer to achieving our objectives for commercial volume growth.”

The following hospitals are being added to CIGNA’s network of providers:

* Providence Memorial Hospital, 508 beds, El Paso, Texas

* Desert Regional Medical Center, 367 beds, Palm Springs, Calif.

* Sierra Medical Center, 351 beds, El Paso, Texas

* Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center, 167 beds, Garden Grove, Calif.

* Nacogdoches Medical Center, 150 beds, Nacogdoches, Texas

* John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, 145 beds, Indio, Calif.

* Community Hospital of Los Gatos, 143 beds, Los Gatos, Calif.

* Twin Cities Community Hospital, 84 beds, Templeton, Calif.

Sierra Providence Eastside Hospital, a 100-bed hospital in El Paso, Texas, will be added to the CIGNA network when it opens in the first half of 2008.

“The new CIGNA contract is consistent with our strategy of achieving full participation for all our facilities with managed care partners at competitive financial terms,” said Clint Hailey, Tenet’s chief managed care officer. “This agreement with CIGNA represents a continuation of Tenet's strategy that began in the summer of 2007 with our national agreement with Aetna and was continued with our national agreement with United Healthcare announced in November and now includes CIGNA.”

Since mid-year 2007, Tenet announced multi-year national agreements with Aetna, UnitedHealthcare as well as additional regional contracts including Blue Cross of California, Coventry, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Source: Tenet Healthcare

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