November 3, 2000

Partners HealthCare and Tufts Health Plan announced Wednesday that they had reached an agreement on a new, three-year contract that will allow Tufts Health Plan members to continue to receive care from the MGH, Brigham and Women's Hospital and other Partners hospitals and physicians.

Because of the successful resolution of the negotiations, Tufts Health Plan will continue to be available to MGH employees and staff. The annual open enrollment period for benefits is currently under way at the hospital.

"The new agreement will enable Partners doctors and hospitals to provide high-quality care to patients covered by Tufts and be reimbursed at a rate that will cover the reasonable costs of patient care," said Peter L. Slavin, MD, chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. "We are very sorry for any disruption that Tufts subscribers experienced, but when we made the difficult decision last week, we felt we had no other choice. Today, we are all enormously pleased that this difficult situation is behind us."

The new agreement covers the following Partners physicians and hospitals: the MGH, BWH, The North Shore Medical Center, Newton-Wellesley, Faulkner, Spaulding Rehabilitation; and the community-based doctors and hospitals of Partners Community HealthCare, including Emerson, Beverly and Addison Gilbert hospitals. The new contract covers all Tufts Health Plan commercial health care coverage options. The negotiations did not involve Secure Horizons®, the Tufts senior plan. That contract remains in effect.

Harris Berman, MD, chief executive of Tufts Health Plan, said he was pleased that a resolution had been reached. "We thank our members for their understanding and Partners for its flexibility in reaching this agreement," he said. "Our mutual commitment to our members and patients means that they have the continued certainty of being able to receive treatment from Partners hospitals and physicians through Tufts Health Plan."

Both Partners and Tufts said that these difficult negotiations were a symptom of a very turbulent time in health care both locally and nationally. For the public, it is important that all parties work together to balance affordability with access to a broad choice of providers, officials said in a joint statement. For physicians and hospitals, resources must be available to maintain the highest standards of patient care, especially at a time of huge cutbacks in federal Medicare funding and state Medicaid rates that fall far below the reasonable cost of patient care. For health plans, it is imperative that at a time of rising health care costs, medical resources are used in a way that provides members with comprehensive benefits and affordable access to high-quality health care.

Both sides also said that the agreement between Partners and Tufts Health Plan reflects this balanced approach.