MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Providence Health &Services has reached a tentative agreement with Premera Blue Cross on a new three-year contract.
The agreement will allow patients to continue using the doctors, physicians and hospitals in the Premera health insurance network without interruption next year.
Contract talks broke down in July, when Providence announced that its contract with Premera, based in Mountlake Terrace, would not be renewed.
If an agreement had not been reached, Premera health insurance would no longer have been accepted starting Jan. 1 at Providence, and its affiliated organizations, Swedish, and PacMed, a group of clinics in King and Snohomish counties.
An announcement of the agreement is expected Friday. A formal agreement is expected to be completed by the end of the month.
Neither Providence nor Premera could be reached for comment. However, both organizations sent their employees a brief announcement about the tentative agreement.
An estimated 7,000 Providence patients in Snohomish County are insured through Premera; statewide, some 500,000 Providence patients are insured through Premera.
Some details of the new agreement are still being worked out, but it’s expected to cover the majority of those patients.
Providence organizations in Snohomish County include two hospitals, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, the county’s biggest hospital, and Swedish Edmonds, as well as a group of clinics, Providence Medical Group.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
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