What’s in My Contract? Understanding Healthcare Provider Agreements

This year, one of the services CBS has been providing to practices is aiding them with their payer contracts—renegotiating them, helping startups acquire new ones, or using existing contracts to secure payments.

During this process I can’t help but reflect on my 30-year experience in O&P, and how different the process for getting contracts used to be. I remember when a representative from Aetna showed up with donuts to visit the office I worked in, toured our facility, and asked us to be a provider for their patients. The representative walked us through the contract, section by section. We discussed the reimbursement section, I negotiated fees, and we became Aetna providers.