Nevada County employees are among millions in California relieved about the new three-year agreement between Anthem Blue Cross and Dignity Health, after months of contentious negotiations. The previous agreement was allowed to expire on July 15th. And that meant, over the last month, that Anthem was no longer considered an in-network plan for patients at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. Nancy Haffey, at the county Human Resources Department, says that impacted around 700 of their employees…

click to listen to Nancy Haffey

But there was still in-network approval for continuum of care treatments. Otherwise, Haffey says local patients faced the prospect of driving 30 miles or more to find a hosptial that accepted Anthem as in-network…

click to listen to Nancy Haffey

Anthem had said Dignity’s prices are 30-percent higher than other state health systems, and it charges commercial plans in excess of 300 times the Medicare rate in certain instances. But Dignity argued the new rates it asked for were in line with what would be considered competitive in the health care market.