{"id":14372,"date":"2026-05-06T09:47:50","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/erie-ob-gyn-practice-highmark-contract-dispute-could-affect-patients-erie-times-news\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:47:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:47:50","slug":"erie-ob-gyn-practice-highmark-contract-dispute-could-affect-patients-erie-times-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/erie-ob-gyn-practice-highmark-contract-dispute-could-affect-patients-erie-times-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie OB\/GYN practice, Highmark contract dispute could affect patients &#8211; Erie Times-News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of Erie largest medical practices is once again battling publicly with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield over a new provider agreement.<br \/>OB\/GYN Associates of Erie recently sent letters to thousands of its patients, informing them that the practice&#8217;s agreement with Highmark is &#8220;set to terminate&#8221; May 15 unless a new one can be reached.<br \/>Highmark issued a news release stating OB\/GYN Associates had &#8220;requested to terminate all of its contracts&#8221; with the health insurer as of May 15.<br \/>Provider agreements determine how much a medical office or hospital receives from a health insurer for covered services, such as office visits and procedures.<br \/>The main issue appears to be how much Highmark will pay for OB\/GYN Associates&#8217; services.<br \/>&#8220;Additionally, OBGYN Associates has requested significant increases in the rates we pay them to care for our members,&#8221; Highmark officials said in the news release. &#8220;This increases costs that are paid for by the community.&#8221;<br \/>The practice did not return a phone message left with its office manager.<br \/>In its letter sent to patients, OB\/GYN Associates encouraged them to call Highmark and tell the insurer that they are &#8220;disappointed about their inability to come to terms with OB\/GYN Associates of Erie and keep our group in its network.&#8221;<br \/>If a deal can&#8217;t be reached, the practice would no longer be in Highmark&#8217;s provider network. Patients with Highmark insurance would have to pay much higher out-of-pocket fees for its services.<br \/>Women who are pregnant or under evaluation for a surgery might remain in-network until their postpartum care or post-operative visits are completed, OB\/GYN Associates said in its letter.<br \/>It&#8217;s not the first time contract talks between OB\/GYN Associates and Highmark have gone public. The practice sent a similar letter to its patients in 2024 before reaching an agreement with the health insurer.<br \/>The practice has a history of newsworthy negotiations with local hospitals and health insurers.<br \/><em>Contact David Bruce at\u00a0<a href=mailto:dbruce@timesnews.com target=_blank rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dbruce@timesnews.com<\/a>\u00a0or by calling 814-870-1736<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMiswFBVV95cUxPZ2xDQWlLTGhWaTVLdTg1VVZ2MGJ3bExPZkloWGo0RUstd2R6MDA2Y3BvU2Y5MGM2LThDQnBUZ1dDR19YRkxVZE05MWdBcGN3LWRGTURQQ3J3Sjk0X3Z2QUxOMkRwNnBRQnN0cDNOa1FlRDZRWHdPVDhVQk91dU9VNks4eVlEWWx4SUlmeERvOU9kM0FxT1RQN1Y1eTFwb3lTRDB6NzROM1czM2pvUHhYdWRyMA?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of Erie largest medical practices is once again battling publicly with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield over a new provider agreement.OB\/GYN Associates of Erie recently sent letters to thousands of its patients, informing them that the practice&#8217;s agreement with Highmark is &#8220;set to terminate&#8221; May 15 unless a new one can be reached.Highmark issued [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}