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Galichia signs deals with two insurers

Galichia Heart Hospital has signed agreements with Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kansas and with Coventry Health Care of Kansas, making the hospital an in-network provider for both insurance companies. Galichia CEO Stephen Harris said Tuesday that the hospital had been negotiating with both companies for several months. Galichia signed a contract with Preferred Health Systems earlier this year. Harris called the contracts “a sentinel event in our history. “”We’ve been talking to them for a long time,” he said. Blue Cross and PHS are the two largest insurers in the Wichita market; the sale of PHS to Coventry is pending. For years, Blue Cross and Wesley Medical Center had an exclusive contract, and PHS and the Via Christi Health system had an exclusive contract. PHS is owned by Via Christi Health. The PHS-Galichia contract signed earlier this year was the first in a series of announcements as the market opened. Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital recently announced that it had signed an agreement to become an in-network facility for PHS as of Jan. 1. It already contracts with Blue Cross and Coventry. Blue Cross now has contracts with Wesley, Via Christi, Galichia, Kansas Heart Hospital and Wesley Rehab. PHS has contracts with Via Christi, Wesley, Galichia, Kansas Medical Center in Andover and Wesley Rehab. Coventry has contracts with Wesley, Galichia, Wesley Rehab and Via Christi-Our Lady of Lourdes. PHS made Galichia an in-network hospital when the contract was signed; the other agreements will take effect in 2010. Harris said, “I think it makes business sense for Blue Cross to have a broad network, and it make business sense for Coventry” to have a bigger network in the Wichita area. The opening of the market, he said, “allows the hospitals to compete with quality and service and support rather than just because they have the contract. . . . It’s good for us because we’ll be able to level the playing field, which we’ve always wanted. ”