Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Mt. Sinai doctors clash: 'It's always about money.'

"It's exactly the analogy I always use, and patients are just the little people at the feet of the titans that get kind of stomped on. In our country, we really elevate free market health care and we allow contracting norms to kind of rule health care. That works great for the big parties at stake, the hospital systems and the insurance companies, but it doesn't work for patients."

"We are locked into what's called open enrollment periods. That only happens over a couple of weeks, typically at the end of the year. We have to make our decisions for the entire year based on what we think is going to be where our doctors are. Unfortunately, many of these big things happen after the close of open enrollment, which is really unfair for patients."

Mount Sinai doctors went out-of-network for Anthem members starting in January due to a contract dispute. The health system initially claimed doctors returned to in-network status, but later clarified this was false, blaming Anthem for the stalemate. Anthem released a counter-statement blaming Mount Sinai. Elisabeth Benjamin from the Community Service Society explained that such disputes between large insurance companies and hospital systems harm patients, who are locked into annual enrollment periods and cannot easily switch coverage when disputes occur mid-year. Patients typically base insurance decisions on price and doctor location, but major contract changes often happen outside enrollment windows, leaving them with limited options.

Read at Gothamist