BMI break with AXA PPP…as well as BUPA!

Following their refusal to be part of BUPA’s cataract network, BMI, the UK’s largest private hospital chain, have also broken with AXA PPP. From 1 October, BMI will withdraw completely from the AXA PPP network for oral surgery. BMI say that this is because AXA PPP have been unable to alter the referral system as agreed. Instead of the referral going direct to the hospital, patients have been taking the traditional route through a Specialist. As a result, BMI have had to pay full fees to the chosen Specialist rather than being able to select a Specialist and negotiate fees accordingly.

Unlike cataracts, oral surgery, and wisdom teeth extraction in particular, is a frequently performed procedure among corporate members and families. BMI’s actions may therefore cause some inconvenience, even though the AXA PPP network is still extensive even without BMI. This said, the history of networks to date is that GPs, Specialists and insurers usually succeed in redirecting referrals to within network facilities. At this stage there is no reason to think that this situation will be different.

And other hospital news…

BUPA sold their hospitals to the venture capitalists, Cinven, some months ago. The new organisation has now announced that it will in future be known as ‘Spire Hospitals’.

Capio group, the fourth largest private hospital group in the UK with 27 hospitals, has been sold to Ramsay Health Care. The change from one foreign owner to another – Swedish to Australian in this case – still leaves Nuffield group as the only major player in the market that is entirely British-owned. Ramsay is the largest hospital group in Australia.

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