A feud between 25 health insurers and the operator of two ACT private hospitals that could have left thousands of Canberra’s private patients with higher out-of-pocket expenses has reached a temporary resolution.
Public and private hospital operator Calvary – which runs Calvary Private in Bruce and Calvary John James in Deakin – was due to tear up its contract with the industry body representing the funds the Australian Health Service Alliance from November 20.
But just one week out Calvary has “suspended” the contract termination “to allow the issues in dispute to be further worked through and possibly resolved, in the interests of patients, healthcare practitioners and staff”, according to a statements from both organisations.
The move was expected to affect up to 2 million customers nationally and came after Calvary and AHSA failed to reach an agreement over the rates the health insurers pay hospitals for services provided to their members.