Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Piedmont Healthcare Announce Contract Renewal

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBS) and Piedmont Healthcare recently announced an agreement on the new terms for their healthcare contract in GA. This will allow them to continue their healthcare partnership in GA for another three years. The new healthcare contract for Georgia goes into effect on August 1, 2009.

According to the terms of the agreement, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of GA (BCBSGA) members can continue to access Piedmont Healthcare as an in-network provider for health services in Georgia. This includes all HMO, POS and PPO members of Blue Cross GA.

This is good news as Piedmont Healthcare is a large network of Healthcare in Georgia. The Piedmont Physician’s Group has more than 100 primary care physicians practicing in over 30 offices throughout the Atlanta area. The network includes hospitals throughout most of the Atlanta metro area and beyond. Piedmont Healthcare also includes:

• Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta
• Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville
• Piedmont Mountainside Hospital in Jasper
• Piedmont Newnan Hospital in Newnan

Piedmont Healthcare is one of the top Medical Groups in terms of Cardiac Care in GA. For the last 2 years, Piedmont Healthcare was named “Best in Atlanta for Overall Cardiac Care and Cardiac Surgery” by HealthGrades. Healthgrades is the leading healthcare ratings organization, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals.

Not only that, but Piedmont Healthcare is also the parent company of Piedmont Heart Institute (PHI). PHI combines more than 60 cardiologists with more than 30 offices across north Georgia.

In addition, all but Piedmont Newnan Hospital were included in the top three patient satisfaction scores among metro Atlanta hospitals according to the HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) survey released in March 2009.

Representatives from both Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Piedmont Healthcare were pleased at the contract renewal, as both are large providers of healthcare and health insurance in Georgia. And by the contract renewal this allows for patients insured under Georgia Blue Cross Blue Shield to have access to high quality and affordable healthcare.