GROUP PROPOSES INSURANCE PACKAGE

A new insurance package designed to benefit subscribers, doctors and hospitals was introduced Wednesday by a local physicians-hospitals organization.

The insurance package, HealthNet Blue, will be sold in Southeast Missouri through Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield. It has been developed with MedAmerica HealthNet Inc., a nonprofit organization that includes five hospitals and more than 200 doctors in the region.

"Welcome to health reform," Maureen Murphey of Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield said at a press conference Wednesday.

While health-care reform remains a hot topic in Washington and Jefferson City, reform is happening in Southeast Missouri through the PHO's efforts, she said.

The package offers flexible benefits built around hometown doctors and hospitals. Salesmen will begin marketing the insurance as soon as final Missouri Department of Insurance approval is received. Approval is expected any day.

Officials said they couldn't discuss rates prior to approval, but a draft benefit outline shows the package features $15 office visits, $500 hospital stays and covered, preventive and routine care.

Through HealthNet Blue, employees will receive higher benefits when using MedAmerica providers, but still may choose a doctor or hospital outside the network.

The network includes doctors in Perry, Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Scott, Stoddard, Mississippi and New Madrid counties.

Dr. William Shell, president of the PHO Board of Directors, said the first groups to be recruited will be hospitals and physicians' offices.

Shell said he is troubled by trends in health care toward large, faceless, managed-care organizations. "We hope we can keep medicine in a more traditional manner and still be cost effective," Shell said.

Roy Heimburger, president and chief executive officer of Alliance Blue Cross Blue Shield, said HealthNet Blue is more than another insurance product; it is a partnership of hospitals, doctors and insurance.

Heimburger said the local nature of the venture will make it attractive to Southeast Missourians. When a problem arises, the person who can make a decision is "local, live and real," he said.

Shell said, "It's much better than calling some 800 number."

Randy Ressel, who will be selling HealthNet Blue, said it will be available to companies with three or more employees.

MedAmerica HealthNet was formed in June by five area hospitals and their medical staffs: Southeast Missouri Hospital and St. Francis Medical Center, both in Cape Girardeau; Dexter Memorial Hospital, Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, and Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville.

The organization was formed to help control health-care costs and to stem the flow of patients to St. Louis and Memphis.

Health-care providers in the network have agreed to discounted fees.

It took half a year to get physicians in the area to sign on to the plan and to set fee schedules.