THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 1, 1995 TAG: 9506010404
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
In the battle to dominate Hampton Roads health care, Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield, a Richmond insurance company, has enlisted another ally.
Doctors at DePaul Medical Center signed an agreement Wednesday night to care for patients enrolled in Trigon's health maintenance organization.
The deal means changes for very few of the doctors' patients. The doctors will keep treating people from other insurance plans and HMOs.
But someday, health care leaders predict, things will be very different. Traditional health insurance plans will dwindle. Almost everyone will join an HMO and will have to use only doctors and hospitals affiliated with that HMO.
To prepare for that day, insurers, hospitals and doctors are choosing sides.
``This isn't like tomorrow the world's going to change. This is more . . . a relationship has been developed that will be part of how the world is going to change,'' DePaul president Kevin P. Conlin said.
The deal helps Trigon seal its relationship with the only Norfolk acute-care hospital that doesn't belong to rival Sentara Health System. For doctors at the 150-year-old Catholic hospital, the arrangement means a little more job security in the changing medical field.
``This will enable us to compete more effectively . . . with the big guy across town,'' said Dr. G. Ted Hughes, president of the doctors' negotiating group.
Some of DePaul's 50 or so general practice doctors will become employees of the hospital. Others will maintain independent practices but have a formal contract to care for patients in Trigon's HMO, HealthKeepers. The arrangement also includes people who are members of Priority Health Care's HMOs, which were just bought by Trigon.
Norfolk residents who get their insurance from HealthKeepers are the only ones whose coverage will change soon, Conlin said. In most cases, those patients will be limited to using DePaul rather than Sentara Norfolk General or Sentara Leigh. Trigon will handle notifying members of the arrangement once details are worked out, he said.
``Does that mean someone scheduled to have surgery today at Norfolk General Hospital is going to be whisked away in an ambulance to DePaul? No,'' he said.
DePaul doctors will continue to treat patients in other insurance plans. That includes patients in Sentara's HMOs - for now. Conlin said the doctors probably will cut ties with Sentara eventually.
HealthKeepers has about 30,000 members in South Hampton Roads, not counting those just acquired from Priority Health Care.
But Trigon has big plans. Roughly 225,000 area residents are enrolled in Trigon's traditional health insurance plan. Eventually, the company will move most of those people into HMOs. by CNB