More than a year after a contract dispute surfaced between Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (Excellus BCBS) and WellNow Urgent Care, the two entities have executed a new provider contract agreement.
The development brings WellNow back into the Excellus BCBS provider network effective Nov. 15, the organization announced in a press statement.
WellNow dropped out of the network at the beginning of this year after it was unable to negotiate an agreement with Excellus BCBS.
The urgent-care provider first brought the issue to light with an Oct. 5, 2023, social media post indicating it may go out of network, indicating Excellus BCBS was more focused on profits. The contract dispute centered around how much WellNow would be reimbursed by Excellus BCBS for services rendered to the insurer’s members.
Excellus BCBS followed suit with its own social media post on January 1, noting, “We have made every effort to engage in good faith contract discussions with WellNow so they would remain in our network in 2024. They, however, have declined our latest offer and have been removed from our provider network effective 1/1/2024.”
Now, with the new agreement, Excellus BCBS members will once again have access to WellNow’s urgent-care facilities starting this Friday, Nov. 15. Terms of the new provider agreement were not disclosed.
WellNow, which is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, has 66 urgent care locations in New York, including DeWitt, Fayetteville, Ithaca, New Hartford, Oswego, Utica, Cicero, Fulton, Oneonta, Herkimer, Liverpool, Oneida, Rome, Syracuse, Watertown, Clay, and Elmira.
Rochester–based Excellus BCBS, Central New York’s largest health insurer, serves 1.5 million members across upstate New York.