Executive Action Threatened By Gov. Deal In Ga. Health Care Negotiations
Gov. Nathan Deal said in a tweet Monday he has asked the two sides – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and Piedmont Healthcare — to come to an agreement by close of business Tuesday, or else the state “will be forced to initiate executive action.’’
Akili-Casundria Ramsess / Associated Press file
On Twitter, Gov. Nathan Deal threatened executive action if Piedmont Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia don’t agree on a contract by the close of business Tuesday.
I asked @AnthemInc and @PiedmontHealth to resolve their contract dispute by COB tomorrow or the state will be forced to initiate executive action.
— Governor Nathan Deal (@GovernorDeal) April 16, 2018
The tweet came after a Monday morning meeting between the two sides and Deal netted no new agreement.
“To not only call this meeting but also to give ultimately a warning to the two sides of some kind of executive action really hasn’t been seen,” said Andy Miller of Georgia Health News.
On Monday afternoon, the governor’s office told WABE that one thing the governor can do with an executive action is expand the number of insurance companies available to state employees and retirees.
“The problem with executive action is it’s going to be hard to be even-handed,” said Bill Custer, who teaches health care financing at Georgia State University. “It’s going to be hard to design a set of policies that affect both organizations equally.”
More than half-a-million Georgians get their health insurance from Blue Cross. Several thousand of those are state employees.
After the meeting, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia said in a statement it is “prepared to negotiate non-stop to bring Piedmont’s hospitals and physicians back into our network.”
Piedmont Healthcare didn’t respond to our request for comment.
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