Despite company owing hospital $1.6 million
MACOMB, ILL. -- McDonough District Hospital has decided to continue its contract with Cigna, the company that provides a Quality Care Health Plan for State of Illinois employees.
You'll remember a few weeks ago we told you Cigna owed the hospital more than $1.5 million.
The company has been making minimal payments to the hospital for the services it provides state employees, but has been unable to pay for all of those services.
That's because the state of Illinois is behind on payments to Cigna.
The hospital's contract with the company would have ended June 30th, but M.D.H. has decided to extend it through 2011.
"The reason the hospital decided to stay with Cigna is so we can better serve the patients in our community. There's no question that the state has a financial problem. We believe we will be paid, it's just a matter of, given the current fiscal situation of the state of Illinois, those payments are slow in coming," said Director of Public Relations John Maguire.
Maguire says community members and physicians had been asking the hospital to stay with Cigna, that's another reason the decision was made to extend the contract.
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