POB is pleased to report that Blue Shield of California (BSC) reached a deal with the University of California Health System (UCH) on July 7 after months of negotiations that had threatened to impact tens of thousands of San Francisco active and retired public sector employees as well as SFERS members, and had threatened to balloon into a statewide dilemma. All nine UC Campuses signed on to the agreement. Now, the CA Department of Managed Care must approve this contract before it is finalized.
Thank you to the hundreds and hundreds of POB members, and our alliance of senior groups (California Alliance of Retired Americans, RECCSF and others) who wrote, called and emailed their supervisors, as well as BSC and UCH to urge a settlement in the matter. Our letters and calls made the winning difference, and shows that we have strength in numbers!
Our combined retiree groups represent thousands of retirees who, after dedicating decades of service to the residents of San Francisco, are now chronically ill and needed the access and excellent care of their long-term doctors at UCSF and other UC clinics around the state. We are grateful to Mayor Daniel Lurie and the San Francisco supervisors intervened in the negotiations and helped settle the issue. Now our members can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing their healthcare can continue without interruption.
Read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle announcing the new agreement: https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/uc-health-blue-shield-agreement-20761800.php
In addition, the Sacrament Bee also announced that the two institutions had settled the negotiations after 35,000 UC Davis patients received letters telling them that BSC was reassigning them to other doctors. Under pressure from patients, UC Davis and UC Irving joined the other UC campuses and settled. Read more here. https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article310235225.html