news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Moses Cone Health System has begun an

e-mail/video campaign to try to persuade doctors, employers and consumers that it is doing the right thing in its contract disagreement with insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

On Wednesday, an e-mail was sent to about 1,700 business leaders, people who had asked to be kept informed about the disagreement or subscribers to other Cone publications, spokesman Doug Allred said.

That e-mail contained a link to a two-minute video in which Beth Ward, Cone's chief financial officer, explains the health system's side of the current impasse. The move comes after both sides have placed advertisements about the dispute.

Moses Cone is seeking an 18 percent increase for the coming year and two additional increases for a total of 36 percent by July 1, 2009. Blue Cross says the 36 percent increase is too high.

Cone has canceled its contract with Blue Cross, effective

Nov. 1, because it and Blue Cross haven't been able to agree on reimbursement rate increases and the length of a new contract.

Blue Cross has said it will not negotiate as long as any cancellation notice is in effect.

Blue Cross "has run a very limited number of print and radio ads in the Greensboro area," spokeswoman Heidi Deja said in a statement. "The ads ran over a two-week period and have not run in about two weeks. We ran ads as a way to inform members."

She added, "Since Moses Cone canceled their contract, our priority has been letting members know about alternative hospital options."

If Nov. 1 passes without a new contract in place, Blue Cross customers will have to go to hospitals other than Moses Cone's campuses — Moses Cone, Wesley Long Hospital, Women's Hospital of Greensboro and Reidsville's Annie Penn Hospital — or be charged higher, out-of-network costs for using a Cone center.

Blue Cross, the state's largest insurer, covers about 120,000 people in Guilford County.

Both Blue Cross and Cone have run advertisements in the News & Record. The Blue Cross ad urged Cone to drop the cancellation notice and resume talks. The Cone ad urged people to call, e-mail or write Blue Cross CEO Bob Greczyn to "negotiate a fair agreement."

The Cone e-mail containing the link to Ward's video also will be sent over the next few days to about 17,000 households and about 4,000 insurance brokers and other businesses, from a purchased list, of people who have expressed an interest in health news.

The e-mail link to video will become a monthly feature, with stories about services and events held at or sponsored by the Cone system, Allred said. But, he said, the first installment focused on Blue Cross negotiations because of the level of public interest in the subject.

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lalexander@news-record.com