Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (Excellus BCBS) and WellNow Urgent Care (WellNow) have executed a new provider contract agreement.
As of Nov. 15, WellNow will rejoin the Excellus BCBS provider network.
WellNow began charging Excellus BCBS subscribers out-of-network costs on Jan. 1, 2024, after both sides failed to reach a new agreement. The point of contention was around reimbursement rates.
Chicago-based WellNow had said Excellus BCBS failed to commit to reasonable rates for needed services, noting urgent care centers have helped to bridge care gaps, offering high quality, affordable and convenient healthcare options throughout the region. Urgent care centers can help reduce annual emergency room visits and provide care to residents in rural areas, they said.
Excellus, however, said that WellNow has asked for a reimbursement rate that is significantly more than the insurer reimburses local doctors for similar services.
WellNow operates six urgent care centers in Monroe County and had more than 62,000 people seeking care at them in 2023.
Last April, Jim Reed, Excellus BCBS president and CEO, told the RBJ that the health insurer would be willing to re-open contract talks with WellNow.
"Our mission, our role, is to provide access to high-quality and affordable health care, and we are not one who has excluded any providers from our network, and in this particular case with WellNow, we did not choose to terminate them from our network, they chose to leave our network," Reed said at the time. "To the extent that they want to come back to our network, and it would benefit our customers, we would absolutely be open to them coming back into our network."