Swedish hospital plans to stop accepting Regence

Published 12:23 pm Thursday, November 19, 2009

SEATTLE — Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center says it plans to stop accepting Regence BlueShield — the region’s biggest health insurer — as a provider.

Regence said in a news release today that Swedish sent a letter announcing its intent. The news release said the dispute is over cost: Swedish wants a 32 percent rate increase over a three-year contract, and Regence says its members can’t afford the higher premiums that would result.

Swedish, however, says Regence owes it more than $20 million in underpayments, mostly for intravenous infusion of chemotherapy. The parties are fighting over that in King County Superior Court.

Swedish is still accepting Regence for the near future. If the hospital goes through with the termination, the sides would have 120 days to reach an agreement.

Regence, a nonprofit, serves more than 1 million members in Washington. Swedish, also nonprofit, is the largest hospital in Seattle.