Now that the dust has settled, and thousands of customer-patients of Union Hospital and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield have exhaled, it might be beneficial to assess the losses and gains of the contract dispute that held much of the Wabash Valley enthrall.
The negatives are easy to spot: Neither Union Hospital Health Group nor Anthem did much for its public image during the months-long contract fight. The insurance giant will suffer fewer after-effects of the rancor because, unlike Union, it is not a foundational institution of our multi-county community.
Union Hospital is a vital element of life here. Its role and impact on all of us, with or without health coverage, are much greater than the insurance services it provides to patients through companies such as Anthem. With its $185-million expansion near completion, the hospital is one of a handful of heavyweights among us. Union offers too many important services, programs and joint ventures with universities and state and federal government to allow itself to ever again get sidetracked as it did during the dispute with Anthem.
Fortunately, the contract fight ended as it should have. Although the terms are secret, a deal was struck to keep the hospital “in network” of its largest private insurer. Surely, when this sort of disagreement again materializes, with Anthem or another insurance provider, Union Hospital Health Group executives will think twice before playing the game of public hardball they chose to play with Anthem.
Even though stress-related illnesses might be good for a hospital’s bottom line, we know it was never Union’s intention to make its customers sick with fear and anxiety. But that is what happened as the hospital played patients off against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. No more, OK?
Among the positives to emerge from the ordeal is the opportunity we all had to learn a lot more about the breadth and complexities of the health care industry and about our specific coverage. As the national debate over this issue intensifies, that knowledge should serve us well and help us become smarter health care consumers.
Also, given the competitive health care environment here, Terre Haute Regional Hospital found itself in a precarious position. Regional handled the situation professionally, providing service, input and information without exploiting the public’s fear and uncertainty for its own narrow interests.
Another plus is a bit ironic, but still useful for the future. The prospect of losing access to Union Hospital and its myriad services reminded many people in the Valley just how much we look to the facility for help. We expect it to be there, to treat us and to take our insurance, be it private, Medicare or Medicaid — and, as the county hospital, to do the same for the uninsured.
Which brings the assessment to one last item. Union Hospital Health Group may have seemed like a corporate monolith during the months of contract battle, but it is, in reality, a collection of human beings working to keep their friends and neighbors healthy and to care for them when they’re not. Nurses, doctors, physician assistants, technicians, aides, orderlies, business staff, cafeteria crew, custodians and an all-volunteer board far outnumber executives.
These hardworking people make up Union Hospital, and they are health care consumers, too. While it might be natural for the rest of us to harbor some resentment over the long, ugly fight between Union and Anthem, the higher road is to focus on these neighbors and friends who are charged with our well-being. It’s time to move on.
Editorials
TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Assessing the fallout from contract battle
- Editorials
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EDITORIAL: Drug-testing bill lacks fairness and decency
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EDITORIAL: Keep religion out of science class
An uncertain fate remains for an Indiana Senate bill that would, if it were to become law, allow public schools to teach creationism and other origin-of-life theories in their classes. But this fight may have already been grounded.
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EDITORIAL: Delivering on infrastructure
With national, state and local economies showing distinct signs of recovery from the Great Recession of 2008, it is good to hear Mayor Duke Bennett sounding optimistic about Terre Haute and its immediate future.
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EDITORIAL: Volunteer ‘army’ serving the needs of children
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EDITORIAL: Big dreams do come true
Consider this Super Bowl Sunday to be proof that anything is possible.
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EDITORIAL: Big ‘kick’ from a native son
Every player in Sunday’s Super Bowl is from somewhere. But not every player remembers where he’s from and reaches out to consistently help those back home. Not like Steve Weatherford. Make that not like Terre Haute’s Steve Weatherford.
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EDITORIAL: Smoking ban good enough
When it comes to getting things done in the Indiana General Assembly, progress is often measured in baby steps. Indeed, it can take years to achieve even meager accomplishments.
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EDITORIAL: United Way’s strong reputation helps sustain community trust
It would be foolish in any community to take “positives” for granted, but it’s easy to understand how a casual observer would assume that United Way of the Wabash Valley will always come through with flying colors.
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EDITORIAL: Nothing sexy about human trafficking
When kickoff comes at the 2012 Super Bowl, expectations will be high for a fun, competitive, fanatical contest between the two survivors of the NFL’s regular season.
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EDITORIAL: The law’s good ‘Shepard’
Under the radar and against the backdrop of the fractious right-to-work battle going on in Indianapolis, one of state’s leading public servants delivered his valedictory in typical understated, even quiet, style two weeks ago. And before Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard slips away into retirement, his work needs to be acknowledged and praised.
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EDITORIAL: Cops at risk
Indiana lawmakers are playing with a loaded gun in a bill that passed the Indiana Senate Monday, 45-5.
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TRIBUNE-STAR EDITORIAL: Helping your community, a few mouse clicks at a time
When you type WabashValleyGives.org into your web browser, hundreds of opportunities to help your local community will open on the screen before you.
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EDITORIAL: Raves around the town
To begin the week, we are raving about these recent pieces of local news:
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EDITORIAL: Let Hoosiers have a say on right-to-work bill
Indiana legislators, both Republican and Democrat, may claim to know the will of the people on right-to-work.
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EDITORIAL: Thin ice winter’s deadly scourge
Six-year-old Trevor Wayne Young of Nashville, Ind., and 50-year-old Allen D. Johnson of Galva, Ill., probably had little in common — except the way they died.
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EDITORIAL: Meeting needs at St. Ann's
The caliber of a community often is revealed by its efforts to help its least fortunate citizens.
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EDITORIAL: A sweet deal for Amazon.com
That loud lip-smack on the cheek you heard echoing from Indianapolis last week was the sound of Gov. Mitch Daniels kissing off on what amounts to another sweetheart deal between Indiana and Amazon.com, the online retailing giant.
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EDITORIAL: A new era for growth
The promised announcement of a major new industry for the former Pfizer property in southern Vigo County turned out to be well worth the wait.
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EDITORIAL: Transparency a worthy goal
Do taxpayers have the right to know specific details of contracts between elected school boards and superintendents they hire to run their operations?
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EDITORIAL: Shakir Bell’s success gives boost to Sycamore football
Hope inspires progress. It’s the fuel for a better future.
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EDITORIAL: Inspiration for the future
Hope inspires progress. It’s the fuel for a better future.
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EDITORIAL: Put teeth in public access laws
Indiana’s laws governing public access, as good as they are, lack something important — teeth. There are no significant consequences for agencies or employees who intentionally violate them.
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EDITORIAL: Time for teamwork in Sullivan
The beginning of a new mayoral term in any community is — or should be — a time when the talk of the town is rife with ideas, improvements and changes.
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EDITORIAL: Lawmakers should leave IHSAA, high school basketball alone
In an idyllic world, Indiana could restore its fabled single-class high school basketball state tournament, and thousands of fans would pour into gymnasiums from Angola to Corydon in hopes of witnessing another “Milan Miracle” year after year after year.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Anthem’ proposal way off key
Remember Faith Hill’s impassioned rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl in 2000?
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EDITORIAL: Back from the access brink
It took almost a week, but Gov. Daniels finally stepped up and did the right thing on Wednesday, rescinding new rules aimed at restricting the number of people allowed in the Statehouse during this session of the General Assembly.
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EDITORIAL: Poor decision by local Dems
By a little after 4 this afternoon, Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett will have been sworn in for a second term and City Councilman-elect Robert All will have taken the oath of office for the first time.
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EDITORIAL: Be it resolved …
Resolutions for 2012 are top-of-mind today.
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EDITORIAL: Another slice of Classic history
Baseball is the so-called American pastime, but to Hoosiers and to our Illinois neighbors, it’s basketball that gets a community’s blood pumping. And no form of roundball does that any more intimately than high school basketball, whether boys or girls. College hoops is great, but nothing quite beats the packed, overheated confines of a high school gym when a tight game turns on every possession, every shot, every rebound, every pass, every defensive position. The sing-song of cheerleaders, the shrillness of a ref’s whistle, the squeak of gym shoes on hardwood, the shouted instructions from the benches, the aroma of popcorn — those form a Midwestern tableau unlike any other.
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EDITORIAL: A strategy for growth
There are many ways to market an area in order to spur economic growth. Some may work better than others, but there is no perfect approach. The essential thing is to have a strategy and to implement it.
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