By Star-Advertiser staff

  The Hawaii Supreme Court has ruled that a Maui teacher has the right to sue Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. in court for reimbursement of $250,000 in medical bills, even though the state health trust fund agreed to an arbitration process to settle disagreements.

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JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -

The insurance network battle is still brewing between Health Management Associates and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi. Monday they took the fight to the State Capitol.

HMA sued Blue Cross in June, claiming they weren’t getting the money they were promised in their contract. A week later they were dropped from the Blue Cross network list.

The concerns from hospitals and doctors have only grown since then. They’re worried they won’t be around to give care if something doesn’t change.

“The ultimate result is going to be that those hospitals close. It’s not a threat. It’s just a reality,” said Paul Hurst, of Health Management Associates.

HMA hospitals are absorbing any out-of-network costs for Blue Cross patients but say those people are getting conflicting messages.

“They’re telling patients that you can’t go to these hospitals because we aren’t going to pay for it. So they’ve created a lot of confusion, a lot of fear,” said Hurst

Healthcare professionals testify before legislative committee - MSNewsNow.com - Jackson, MS.

The Mississippi legislature could step in to attempt to resolve an impasse between the state’s largest insurance company and a group of ten Mississippi hospitals.  A joint legislative hearing about the dispute was sometimes heated and emotional.

A standing room only crowd of mostly doctors, lobbyist, and legislators packed the committee room yesterday for a hearing about the on-going contract dispute between Blue Cross Blue Shield and Hospital Management Associates which runs 10 hospitals in Mississippi.

The two companies are feuding over how much the insurance company should pay for procedures.

Paul Hurst with HMA claims Blue Cross is using its dominate market position to strong arm the hospitals into lower payments.

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