A Medical Device Daily

Tenet Healthcare (Dallas) reported that it has signed a national agreement with Aetna (Hartford, Connecticut) that covers Tenet acute care hospitals rehabilitation hospitals, specialty hospitals, outpatient centers and employed physician practices, which adds nine new hospitals to Aetna's direct provider network.

All Tenet facilities and employed physicians agreed to participate in all Aetna products, including HMO, PPO, Medicare, Medicaid and Workers' Compensation Access. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Aetna members will have access to Tenet's 60 subsidiary-owned or operated hospitals in 12 states. The nine hospitals that are being added to the Aetna's direct provider network with this agreement are:

  • Doctors Medical Center of Modesto (Modesto, California)
  • USC University Hospital (Los Angeles)
  • Brookwood Medical Center (Birmingham, Alabama)
  • Frye Regional Medical Center (Hickory, North Carolina)
  • Hilton Head Regional Medical Center (Hilton Head, South Carolina)
  • East Cooper Regional Medical Center (Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina)
  • Nacogdoches Medical Center (Nacogdoches, Texas)
  • Shelby Hospital (Center, Texas)
  • Sylvan Grove Hospital (Jackson, Georgia)

"Tenet and Aetna have taken this relationship to the next level," said Stephen Newman, MD, Tenet's COO. "This agreement is part of our overall strategy to ensure that all of our hospitals participate in the networks of our most preferred health plan partners ..."

In other agreements news:

Premier Purchasing Partners (Charlotte, North Carolina) reported new agreements for brachytherapy seeds have been awarded to Best Medical International (Springfield, Virginia), a minority business enterprise, North American Scientific (Chatsworth, California); and Oncura (Arlington Heights, Illinois).

The new 36-month agreements, effective Aug. 1, offer discounted pricing for brachytherapy supplies including iodine 125 seeds and palladium 103 seeds to acute-care and continuum-of-care members of the Premier alliance.

Premier serves 1,700 hospitals and more than 45,000 other healthcare sites.