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Greater Southeast Community Hospital Terms (Does Not Affect Medicare Coverage)
As was publicly reported, Greater Southeast Community Hospital (GSE) – now known as United Medical Center (UMC) – recently lost its JCAHO accreditation. As a result, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) and CareFirst BlueChoice, Inc. (CareFirst BlueChoice) terminated contracts with this facility effective May 18, 2008. If you were impacted by the termination with UMC, you received notification regarding your benefit coverage at UMC from CareFirst and CareFirst BlueChoice during the week of May 5, 2008. Since this letter was not meant to address coverage under the Medicare program or its supplemental plans, in the event that you have Medicare as your primary insurance, the content of the letter previously sent by CareFirst does not apply to you. UMC has informed CareFirst that it remains a participating provider with Medicare. This means that if you have Medicare primary coverage, you may receive care at UMC under the same terms and conditions that applied before UMC and CareFirst ended their relationship (which includes coverage under any CareFirst plan that supplements Medicare insurance). If you received services at UMC that are covered under Medicare as the primary insurer, you do not need to do anything at this time to continue to receive coverage for care at UMC. Individuals who have Medicare as their primary insurance received a follow-up letter during the week of June 9, 2008 regarding the benefits available at UMC. |
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