Individuals who continue to seek care at Desert Care Network facilities after Oct. This includes the only designated comprehensive stroke care facility, the only Level III NICU, high-risk OB services with Joint Commission Perinatal Care certification and a Level II Trauma Center." Todd Burke, director of communications for Tenet Healthcare, said: "Unfortunately, this means our community will lose in-network access to some critical services offered only by DCN. The geographic locations of its urgent care centers and the main hospital as well as the new Family Birth Center, which opened this summer, were aspects that appealed to Kaiser. "We're very pleased with this," Nasr said of the addition of Eisenhower. Kaiser's letter states many members "have told us they would prefer Eisenhower Medical Center to be an ‘In Network’ hospital where they can choose to receive care." View Gallery: Photos: Family Birth Center opens at Eisenhower Health in Rancho Mirage Kaiser members who live in the high desert communities of Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, Morongo Valley and Landers will continue to have urgent care access with Specialty Urgent Care in Yucca Valley, Nasr added. The addition of Eisenhower has added more physician specialists to the network.
Additionally, members will keep the same primary care physicians and specialists in most cases, they will have access to all covered medically necessary health care services and no additional costs are anticipated, according to the Kaiser letter. They also do not impact Kaiser's three medical offices in Palm Springs, Palm Desert and Indio. If a Kaiser member is experiencing an emergency, they should call 9-1-1 or go to the nearest emergency room. The contract changes do not impact emergency services, Nasr said. These are doctors that see patients once they're admitted to the in-patient setting, explained Nasr. 1, four to six Kaiser doctors who work at Desert Regional will now be at Eisenhower. They will also be able to access Eisenhower’s three urgent care centers located in La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Palm Springs.Īlso starting Oct.
In the letter from Kaiser, members will go to Eisenhower for in-patient hospital care, labor and delivery and specialty surgical services. Previously, Kaiser Permanente had a contract with Eisenhower for three or four years, but due to "discrepancies on both ends," it ended around 2009, Nasr said. He could not provide further contractual details, but said that Kaiser has had "a good relationship" with the Coachella Valley Tenet Healthcare facilities since 2006 and that "they provided good medical care for our members." Kaiser has had an agreement in place with the Coachella Valley Tenet hospitals since 2006, but some form of a contract for 20 years, according to Nasr. "We were hoping that things would work out, but unfortunately, they did not, and Tenet actually more abruptly terminated it than we did," Nasr added.
Nasr said re-negotiations happen "periodically," and that Kaiser "made it clear we were looking at Eisenhower as our main affiliate, but without any intention to completely cut ties or terminate some aspect of residual contracting with JFK and Hi-Desert." Nasr said Tuesday the letter from Desert Care Network was "misleading" and that he wouldn't describe it as "abrupt on our end." Contract re-negotiations began in March with Tenet Healthcare, the Dallas-based owner of Desert Regional. Finney's letter also did not mention Hi-Desert Medical Center and when it would be out-of-network. She wrote there was an "abrupt termination by Kaiser, unexpectedly forcing our two hospitals out of network, ending our ten-year relationship and giving members little say in the matter." The move by Kaiser is "limiting access to just one hospital in the Coachella Valley" for members, she added, though she did not specify that Eisenhower would be in-network. Kaiser members were first noticed about the change in a letter sent by Desert Care Network CEO Michele Finney last week. Esfandiar Nasr, assistant area medical director for Kaiser Permanente Coachella Valley. The changes affect about 44,000 Kaiser members in the Coachella Valley and the high desert communities of Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, Morongo Valley and Landers, according to Dr.
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